Eupolybothrus (Schizopolybothrus) caesar (Verhoeff, 1899)

Pavel Stoev, 2001, On the centipedes (Chilopoda) of the Republic of Macedonia, Historia naturalis bulgarica 13, pp. 93-107 : 97-98

Eupolybothrus (Schizopolybothrus) caesar (Verhoeff, 1899)

Syn? Polybothrus acherontis wardaranus Verhoeff, 1937. Locus typus: "Treskaschlucht bei Skopje".

Material examined: Galichitza Mts. 1 ad. m., 1 ad. fm. , Barakite County, 1,500-1,600 m a.s.l., Fagus sp., 19.06.1994, B. Guéorguiev Ieg .; 1 ad. m., near Ohridsko Lake, 3 km NE of "St. Naum" Cloister, 750 m a.s.l., leaf litter, 06.05.1995, S. Golovatch, B. Petrov & P. Stoev leg .; Ohrid District town of Ohrid, 06.05.1995, under stones, S. Golovatch, B. Petrov & P. Stoev leg . Shar planina Mts. 1 ad. fm., near Emetritza River, 1,170 m a.s.l., Fagus sp., traps, 18-23.07.1996, V. Sakalian, G. Blagoev & A. Lapeva leg .

General distribution. Bosnia, Albania, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia.

Chorotype. W-Balkan.

Remarks. The caesar group of Eupolybothrus involves several poorly-known taxa such as: E. spiniger (Latzel, 1888) , E. acherontis (Verhoeff, 1900) , E. acherontis wardaranus (Verhoeff, 1937) and E. caesar valonensis (Verhoeff, 1905) . The latter is nothing but a junior synonym of caesar (STOEV, 1997, STOEV, 2001). The Latzel's description of spiniger from Bosnia is almost indistinguishable from that of caesarand being described earlier, in case of synonymisation, it will have a priority. E. acherontis and E. acherontis wardaranus seem identical with spiniger and caesar and probably are nothing but junior synonymes. Although it is not the aim of this paper to revise the Caesar group of Eupolybothrus , I would like to emphasize on the close resemblance between the already described taxa and the possible priority of spiniger over caesar . A type examination is highly needed for resolving the problem. Another poorly known species of Schizopolybothrus - E. stygis (Folkmanova, 1940) seems identical with E. leostygis (Verhoeff, 1899) . It has been described from Ilijna pechina near Trebinje, a karstic region where leostygis is also known to exist.