32. Geophilus carpophagus Leach, 1815

New material (Fig. 12). ● Mount Paiko: 1 damaged adult, Plagia to Fanos (loc.16); 1 female with 55 lbs, Kastaneri 2 km east of the village (loc.36).

Distribution. Europe: Albania, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France (incl. Corsica), Germany, Great Britain, Greece (incl. Crete), Ireland, Italy (incl. Sardinia and Sicily), Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal (incl. Azores and Madeira), Romania, Slovenia, Spain (incl. Balearic and Canary Is.), Sweden. West Asia: Palestine, Turkey. North Africa: Algeria, Cape Verde, Morocco, Tunisia (Zapparoli 2002; Bonato et al. 2016).

Chorotype. European (EUR).

Habitat & ecology. In Greece, G. carpophagus occurs mainly on plateaus above the timberline with prostrate shrubs, mainly Juniperus oxycedrus oxycedrus, Berberis cretica, Prunus prostrata, and Satureja spinosa. It has also been caught in subalpine and alpine phryganic ecosystems, as well as, in sand dunes (Simaiakis et al. 2004). In the PPTV area, it is found mixed deciduous woodland from low slopes to higher ridges.

Altitudinal range. 100–1500 m (species found at low and high altitudes, located at 380 and 1000 m).

Remarks. G. carpophagus is a species with a European distribution, historically confused with other species, now largely resolved into a species complex with G. easoni Arthur, Foddai, Kettle, Lewis, Luczynski & Minelli, 2001 and G. arenarius Meinert, 1870 (for details see Bonato & Minelli 2011). Current authoritative sources (see Bonato et al., 2016) list G. carpophagus as a valid species, with a clarified distribution and reduced synonymy, but emphasize the need for careful identification due to its close relatives (see also Simaiakis et al. 2013). The material examined here is assigned to G. carpophagus as it shows the following main features: 55 leg pairs; antennae tapering; head as long as wide; forcipular coxosternite moderately wider than long, sutures diverging forwards, anterior margin without denticles; forcipule without denticles; metasternites with transverse posterior pore-fields; carpophagus pits from 5 to 15 sternites; coxopleuron with 9–10 separate ventral pores; telopodite of 6 articles, with curved pointed claw (see also Bonato et al. 2014).

Natura 2000 Network. The presence of G. carpophagus in the PPTV mountain range includes sites that are part of the ecological network, such as GR1240003 “OROS PAIKO” and GR1240009 “OROS PAIKO, STENA APSALOU, MOGLENITSAS”.

Conservation status. In the Greek Red List of Threatened Species (2024) G. carpophagus is listed as LC, because of lack of identified threats.