Strigamia acuminata ( Leach, 1815 )

Bonato, Lucio, Dányi, László, Socci, Antonio Augusto & Minelli, Alessandro, 2012, Species diversity of Strigamia Gray, 1843 (Chilopoda: Linotaeniidae): a preliminary synthesis, Zootaxa 3593, pp. 1-39 : 9

Strigamia acuminata ( Leach, 1815)

Synonyms: Geophilus subtilis C.L. Koch, 1838 ; Linotaenia rosulans C.L. Koch, 1847 ; Geophilus sanguineus Gervais, 1847 ; Scolioplanes variabilis Verhoeff, 1895 ; Scolioplanes engadinus banaticus Verhoeff, 1935 .

Nominal subspecies: S. acuminata microdon ( Attems, 1904) ; S. acuminata brevidentata ( Verhoeff, 1928) ; S. acuminata italica ( Verhoeff, 1928) ; S. acuminata pachypus ( Verhoeff, 1935) .

References for morphology: Brolemann 1930 (in part); Verhoeff 1935; Eason 1964; Matic 1972; Koren 1986; Iorio 2004, 2005; Barber 2008, 2009a.

Taxonomic notes. Described originally as a species of Geophilus , it was subsequently cited under different genera, including Linotaenia and Scolioplanes . It has been classified in Strigamia since Crabill (1953). Different varieties and subspecies were recognized, mainly by Verhoeff (1928, 1935), but their validity was sometimes questioned though not definitively rejected ( Schubart 1967; Würmli 1972; Stoev 1997). Its name has been occasionally misspelled as “ Linotaenia attenuatus ” ( Chamberlin 1911)

Geophilus subtilis , Linotaenia rosulans and Geophilus sanguineus were synonymized under S. acuminata first tentatively by Bergsøe & Meinert (1866) and Meinert (1870), then definitively by Plateau (1872).

Scolioplanes variabilis was introduced by Verhoeff (1895) to indicate a putatively variable species that, in his opinion, had been separated incorrectly into two species, namely S. acuminata Leach and S. crassipes C.L. Koch. In his concept, S. variabilis comprised three subspecies, which he called S. variabilis acuminata , S. variabilis crassipes and S. variabilis carniolensis Verhoeff (currently a subspecies of S. crassipes ; see below). Verhoeff’s opinion was followed only by a few authors, and only in part, and eventually abandoned by him. The species name S. variabilis was completely ignored in subsequent literature, apart from being listed among the synonyms of S. crassipes by Matic (1972). Actually, S. variabilis should be costrued as a junior synonym of S. acuminata , because the latter should have been recognised as the valid name for Verhoeff’s composite species, according to the principle of priority (I.C.Z.N. 1999: art. 72.9).

Scolioplanes engadinus banaticus was described by Verhoeff (1935) and rarely cited by subsequent authors, until Matic (1972) listed it among the synonyms of S. engadina . However, Verhoeff (1935) acknowledged that it is very similar to S. acuminata and also gave a range of variation in the number of trunk segments that corresponds to that of S. acuminata but not to that of the nominotypical subspecies of S. engadina . S. engadinus banaticus is recognized here as a junior synonym of S. acuminata (new synonymy).

Distribution: most of continental Europe, from the Iberian peninsula to the Caucasus and Volga basin; also Great Britain and Sicily. It has been reported as introduced to some localities in the eastern part of North America. Published records from the western part of North America and Japan need confirmation because of probable confusion with S. chionophila , which has been sometimes considered a synonym of S. acuminata (see under S. chionophila ). A vague citation for North Africa is probably erroneus (see under Discussion).