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On the True Identity of Arctogeophilus fulvus (Wood), With Some Remarks Concerning the Status of Mecistocephalus melanonotus Wood (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha: Geophilidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Ralph E. Crabill Jr.
Affiliation:
Cornell University

Extract

In 1862 H. C. Wood described a new centipede, Mecistocephalus fulvus, which he found “not very abundantly” in the vicinity of Philadelphia. To my knowledge no subsequent worker has ever attempted to refer a centipede to this species, nor has fulvus ever been considered a synonym of any other species, so that for eighty-eight years it has been regarded privately or in print as being incertae sedis.

The confusion surrounding this species has been due primarily to the following considerations: it has never been taken by anyone other than its author; the type is missing; it was highly improbable that this species could be referred to Mecistocephalidae, or even to Mecistocephalus, a genus represented in the eastern United States by a single imported species; and the original description itself refers to a centipede not quite like anything else known to occur in the east.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1950

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References

1 Wood, : Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., new series, V, p. 41, (1862).Google Scholar

2 Attems, : Das Tierreich, lief. 52, p. 155, (1929).Google Scholar Cited as incertae sedis, fulvus is included in the section on Mecistocephalidae. sectyon on Mecistocephalidae.

3 Mecistocephalus maxillaris (Gervais).

4 americanus (Brolemann) = umbraticus (McNeill).

5 Wood: loc. cit.

6 Attems et al.; Attems: op. cit., p. 298.

7 By “digm” the idea of sample or example is meant. The tenn has no “typical” connotation in the nomenelatorial sense.