Clinopodes skopljensis ( Verhoeff, 1938 )

Bonato, Lucio, Iorio, Étienne & Minelli, Alessandro, 2011, The centipede genus Clinopodes C. L. Koch, 1847 (Chilopoda, Geophilomorpha, Geophilidae): reassessment of species diversity and distribution, with a new species from the Maritime Alps (France), Zoosystema 33 (2), pp. 175-205 : 191-192

Clinopodes skopljensis ( Verhoeff, 1938)

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY. — 1 juvenile, holotype ; from “Skoplje” (= Skopje [ Macedonia]) ( Verhoeff 1938).

SYNONYMS. — None.

NOMINAL SUBSPECIES. — None.

MAIN REFERENCES. — Verhoeff 1938: 341 (original description, as Geophilus skopljensis ); Attems 1947: 120 (in key).

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — None.

DIAGNOSIS. — A Clinopodes species with around 61 pairs of legs; denticles of the forcipular coxosternite moderately elongate, slightly wider than long; chitin-lines vanishing before reaching the condyles; even the largest sternal porefields on the posterior leg-bearing segments well behind the mid-length of the metasternite; all canals of the coxal organs opening through independent pores, more dense close to the lateral margins of the metasternites but most of them not covered by the latter, without a distinctly isolated pore. See also Table 3 and key to species.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. — Macedonia (only known from the type locality).

TAXONOMIC AND NOMENCLATURAL NOTES Clinopodes skopljensis was originally described by Verhoeff (1938) as a species in the subgenus Clinopodes of the genus Geophilus , and was transferred to Clinopodes by Attems (1947). No other specimens were identified, it was almost completely ignored with the exception of mere citations in faunistic catalogues ( Kos 1992; Stoev 1997, 2001b), and its identity has been regarded as uncertain ( Stoev 2001b). Even though the original description is incomplete for some characters and is based on a single juvenile, it suggests that C. skopljensis could actually be different from all other species of Clinopodes (see Table 3), and therefore it is provisionally maintained here as a distinct species.