Family SCOLOPENDRIDAE

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Introduction

The Scolopendridae include all the large centipedes. Among them is Scolopendra gigantea, the largest centipede in the world, at 300 mm dwarfing the smallest member of the family which measures only 35 mm. Scolopendrids have a rhomboid cluster of four ocelli and may be coloured yellow, brown, orange, green or red; some species exhibit black or dark blue markings. The final pair of legs may be highly modified, forming grasping appendages (Hoffmann 1982: 684).

This family is divided into two subfamilies: the Otostigminae (8 genera, 150 species) and the Scolopendrinae (20 genera, 200 species), both distributed predominantly throughout the tropics, including Australia and the southern part of the Northern Hemisphere (Hoffmann 1982: 684). Nine genera and 40 described species are recorded for Australia. Three undescribed species have been reported.

The systematics and taxonomy of Australian scolopendrid centipedes has been the subject of a series of papers by L.E. Koch. These include morphological, phylogenetic and zoogeographic studies as well as taxonomic treatments of Australian species of the genera Cormocephalus, Ethmostigmus, Arthrorhabdus, Rhysida and Scolopendra (Koch 1983; Koch & Burgman 1984; Koch & Colless 1986).

Database Notes

Koch, 1983a provides a key to the Australian genera of Scolopendridae.

General References

Hoffmann, R.L. 1982. Chilopoda. pp. 681-688 in Parker, S. (ed.). Synopsis and Classification of Living Organisms. New York : McGraw-Hill Vol. 2.

Koch, L.E. 1983. Morphological characters of Australian scolopendrid centipedes, and the taxonomy and distribution of Scolopendra morsitans Linnaeus (Chilopoda: Scolopendridae: Scolopendrinae). Australian Journal of Zoology 31: 79-91

Koch, L.E. & Burgmann, M.A. 1984. The zoogeography and phylogenetic relationships of three genera of Australian scolopendrid centipedes (Chilopoda: Scolopendridae). Australian Journal of Zoology 32: 507-518

Koch, L.E. & Colless, D.H. 1986. Numerical taxonomy of Australian species of nine genera of scolopendrid centipedes (Chilopoda: Scolopendridae). Australian Journal of Zoology 34: 87-105

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