The exclusively afrotropical genus Gonioscelis Schiner, 1866, now containing thirty-eight species, is revised.

Sturmiopsis Townsend is an important larval parasitoid of lepidopterous stem borers in the Afrotropical and Oriental Regions, and there is a substantial literature relating to the potential role of its included species as biological control agents of economically significant pest species. Two species have been described from Africa, namely Sturmiopsis ...

A new species of bolas-spider Cladomelea debeeri is described from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The spider constructs a bolas-line consisting of two to three silk threads with two to three sticky droplets at the free end. The spider uses the second pair of legs to whirl the bolas-line. Whirling is done ...

No indication of the presence of Wolbachia as the bacterial agent that may be involved in the development of parthenogenesis in Diplopoda was obtained using both eggs and torsos of the millipedes Poratia obliterata (Kraus, 1960) (a parthenogenetic hothouse population in Europe, and bisexual free-living ones in Amazonia) and P. ...

Since about 1880 the scientific literature on Myriapoda has increased enormously. As this literature is widely dispersed in a huge number of scientific journals, we have started the German Myriapod Literature Project (GerMyLit) to gather literature published on Myriapoda. As a database standard we have adopted the field conventions of ...

Embryonic development of Xenobolus carnifex lasted for 8, 12 and 16 days at 36, 32 and 28 [degrees]C, respectively. The incubation period of eggs was inversely related to temperature. Estimations of energy density at various stages of development, and calculations based on the yield of water due to metabolism of ...

The Diplopoda communities in 12 different forest habitats were studied in Bialowieza Primeval Forest, Poland. Material was collected in 1999 by pitfall trapping at 138 study sites. The epigeic communities of Diplopoda inhabiting the Bialowieza Forest consist of 10-14 species, depending on the type of forest. Glomeris connexa and Polydesmus ...

As part of a large-scale research program investigating endangered biotopes in the state of SaxonyAnhalt in eastern Germany, the centipede fauna of 50 sites, belonging to five types of xeric biotopes, was studied by pitfall trapping from 1995 to 1998 (each site for one year). The most abundant species was ...

The eastern part of the Czech Republic, Moravia, was effected by a disastrous flood in the summer of 1997. This flood washed away floodplain forest litter and most of epigeic soil invertebrates. Three adjoining floodplain forests were investigated to examine the effect of the flood on the population of Leptoiulus ...

In July 1997 a disastrous summer flood affected extensive areas of Moravia in the Czech Republic. During the years 1998-2001 the development of communities of centipedes (Chilopoda) were studied in floodplain forests along the Morava River in the Litovelske Pomoravi Protected Landscape Area. Three floodplain forests of different ages (3, ...

This work was performed in an experimental plot in the Parc Natural de Sant Llorenc de Munt, Barcelona, Spain, in a sclerophilous forest of Mediterranean climate. This forest is made up mainly of Quercus ilex and Pinus halepensis trees and the most important bush species is Arbutus unedo. The litter ...

The issue investigated was whether a distinction can be made between centipede communities from different development phases of an unevenly-aged beech forest stand. The influence of stand structure on centipede diversity, resulting from a particular forest management practice, was evaluated. Soil samples were taken three times during 2000 from a ...

The current work presents a study of the centipedes captured in three habitats of Toledo Province, Spain. These habitats correspond to a riverside, a well preserved green oak forest, and a rural field degraded by anthropogenic action. Sampling was performed using both direct capture and Berlese extraction from soil cores. ...

The southern African Harpagophoridae comprises three genera: Zinophora (12 described and four undescribed species), Harpagophora (six described and one undescribed species) and Poratophilus (three species, including one unconfirmed species). Recent collecting in South Africa, and taxonomic revisions, have provided new insights facilitating a biogeographical study. The family is widely distributed ...

Allopatric/parapatric distribution mosaics are apparently widespread among millipede genera, notably in Polydesmida. In this paper I discuss possible origins for these lineage mosaics and possible mechanisms for the persistence of their narrow parapatric zones, using mainly Tasmanian examples. Although it seems unlikely that lineage mosaics arise through rapid differentiation of ...

Twelve previously unrecorded species were discovered in the Czech Republic between 1970 and 2002. These species, belonging to the Mediterranean and Atlantic zoogeographic zone, have so far been found in synanthropic and semi-natural habitats in the Czech Republic. The occurrence of thermophilic species may correlate with the gradual warming of ...

Pore openings in different arrangements were observed between the ommatidia of the compound eyes of Scutigera coleoptrata (Scutigeromorpha) and Lithobius forficatus (Lithobiomorpha). Similar pores were not detectable between the ommatidia of either Scolopendromorpha or Craterostigmophora. Fine structural investigations revealed that the pores belong to epidermal exocrine glands. In order to ...

The present study describes a new head gland in Scutigera coleoptrata using light and electron microscopy. This multicellular complex gland is located at the dorsal side of the maxillary organ and is therefore called the 'maxillary organ gland'. This gland is composed of numerous secretory units, each of which is ...

The plasmatocytes of Scutigera coleoptrata were investigated by light and electron microscopy. Plasmatocytes exocytose fibrous structures that develop in their grana. The grana contain an electron-dense area in their centre, from which the fibrous material detaches. The grana transform themselves to vacuoles. The tubules may be released from the vacuoles ...

Scanning and transmission electron microscopic investigations of the maxillipedes of adult centipedes and the first anamorphic larval stage of Lithobiomorpha show the presence of sensilla coeloconica on the surface of the poison claw. In maxillipedes of larval stages only a single type of sensillum is present. In the adult centipedes ...

Current support for myriapod monophyly is revised based on a comparative study of the head morphology in Tetramerocerata (Pauropoda) and Pselaphognatha (Diplopoda). New data on the cephalic endoskeleton permit a reconstruction of the common pattern of the myriapod 'tentorium'. Polyxenus lagurus (Pselaphognatha) shows no principle difference to the original state ...

Increasing evidence, in particular from gene expression data, indicates that mandibles throughout the Mandibulata are gnathobasic and that myriapod and hexapod mandibles do not represent 'whole limbs'. These observations do not necessarily imply that the gnathal edges of the mandibles are also homologous, though this homology finds some support from ...

This study was undertaken in order to obtain more data on the life history of Onychophora under laboratory conditions, and to help distinguish selected morphs of the 'Peripatoides novaezealandiae-complex'.

The subclass Penicillata Latreille, 1829 (= Pselaphognatha Latzel, 1884), sister-group of the Chilognatha (Class Diplopoda), comprises a single order (Polyxenida Lucas, 1840; nomen translatum Chamberlin & Hoffman, 1958) and four families including tiny, hairy, arthropods (up to 7 mm long) characterised by a soft integument and the presence of numerous ...

Three genera of Penicillata, belonging to the family Polyxenidae, appear to show the sensilla on their gnathochilarial palps apically pseudoarticulated. These are Macroxenus Brolemann, 1917 (the type-species: Polyxenus rubromarginatus Lucas, 1846, from Algeria), Macroxenodes Silvestri, 1948 (the type-species: Polyxenus meinerti Silvestri, 1898, from Venezuela), and Chilexenus Silvestri, 1948 (the type-species: ...

Difficulties encountered in achieving correct identifications of scolopendromorphs are detailed, and the need for work on variation is stressed. The causes of this variation are examined with particular reference to scolopendrids and Cryptops. Many of the characters used in specific determination cannot be explained in terms of their function, and ...

The volvatory, or 'oniscoid' Polydesmida are reviewed at the family level, with descriptions of their volvation patterns, and diagnostic accounts for the following nine groups involved: Ammodesmidae, Campodesmidae, Cyrtodesmidae, Doratodesmidae, Dorsoporidae, Oniscodesmidae, Sphaeriodesmidae, Hyperothrix Attems, 1900 (?Pyrgodesmidae), and Asphalidesmus Silvestri, 1910 (Dalodesmoidea). These patterns, although rather characteristic at the generic ...

Phylogenetic relationships in the lithobiomorph family Henicopidae are analysed based on sequence data for five molecular markers and 58 morphological characters. The character sample includes two nuclear ribosomal genes (complete 18S rRNA and the D3 region of 28S rRNA) and three mitochondrial genes, two ribosomal (16S rRNA and 12S rRNA) ...

Between 1991 and 2002 more than 300 specimens of scolopendromorphs were collected from 100 sites in Taiwan. In total, 16 species and subspecies in the genera, Cryptops, Otostigmus, Rhysida, Scolopendra, and Scolopocryptops were identified. A key to the scolopendromorph genera and species of Taiwan is presented. Three species not previously ...