Strigamia chionophila Wood 1862

Strigamia chionophila Wood, 1862

Synonym: Linotaenia miuropus Chamberlin, 1902.

References for morphology: Meinert 1886; McNeill 1888; Chamberlin 1902 (sub Linotaenia miuropus), 1911, 1912a; Johnson 1952.

Taxonomic notes. Described originally as a species of Strigamia, it was assigned subsequently to Linotaenia, Scolioplanes or Tomotaenia, until the classification under Strigamia prevailed after Crabill (1954b). It was suspected to be identical to S. acuminata (Chamberlin 1920, 1923, 1925; Eason 1964), but most authors maintained it as a distinct species and assigned many new specimens to it. After direct examination of American and European specimens confidently representative of S. chionophila and S. acuminata respectively, we confirm that the two species differ consistently in the presence vs. absence of sulci between the pretergite and the intercalary pleurites of the ultimate leg-bearing segment, which is one of the major interspecific characters in the genus (Table 1).

Linotaenia miuropus was described by Chamberlin (1902), cited under Scolioplanes by Attems (1929) and synonymized under S. chionophila by the same Chamberlin (1925, 1961).

Distribution: northern and western part of North America, northwards to subarctic regions of Alaska and Canada, southwards to California along the Rocky Mountains, Kentucky and Virginia; extending westwards through the Aleutian Islands to at least the Behring Island. Published records of S. acuminata from Japan could actually refer to S. chionophila.