Strigamia crassipes (C.L. Koch, 1835)

Synonyms: Geophilus breviceps Newport, 1845; Geophilus anauniensis Fedrizzi, 1876; Scolioplanes mediterraneus Verhoeff, 1928; Scolioplanes tauerorum Verhoeff, 1940.

Nominal subspecies: S. crassipes carniolensis (Verhoeff, 1895); S. crassipes alsatica (Verhoeff, 1928); S. crassipes carynthiaca (Verhoeff, 1928); S. crassipes longaronensis (Verhoeff, 1935); S. crassipes pegliensis (Verhoeff, 1935); S. crassipes faitana (Verhoeff, 1943).

References for morphology: Verhoeff 1928, 1935; Brolemann 1930 (sub Scolioplanes acuminatus, in part); Machado 1952; Eason 1964; Matic 1972; Koren, 1986; Iorio 2004, 2005; Barber 2008, 2009a.

Taxonomic notes. Described originally as a species of Geophilus, it was cited for a long time under either Linotaenia or Scolioplanes, until its classification in Strigamia was established gradually since Crabill (1953). Despite the fact that S. crassipes and S. acuminata are obviously different in major features including the number of trunk segments (Table 1), some confusion arose in the past: C.L. Koch (1837) misidentified a female S. acuminata as a S. crassipes, as recognized by Bergsøe & Meinert (1866) and subsequent authors; Verhoeff (1895) merged the two species into a single variable species, which he named Scolioplanes variabilis (see above under S. acuminata), a treatment that was later abandoned by the same author; S. crassipes was occasionally treated as a subspecies of S. acuminata (Verhoeff 1898; Machado 1952), and Brolemann (1930) explicitly synonymized S. crassipes under S. acuminata. Different subspecies and varieties were distinguished under S. crassipes or its synonyms (Verhoeff 1935), which created a complex intraspecific taxonomy including many infrasubspecific entities (see below under “Unavailable names”). Some of these infraspecific taxa have been cited occasionally also recently, but most of them have been ignored.

Geophilus breviceps and Geophilus anauniensis are regarded confidently as synonyms of S. crassipes since Latzel (1880), and Scolioplanes tauerorum since Schubart (1967).

Scolioplanes mediterraneus was described by Verhoeff (1928) and further specimens were referred later to it. The species was treated subsequently by the same author as either a variety or a subspecies of S. crassipes (Verhoeff 1935, 1940). It was maintained only occasionally as valid (Folkmanová 1952; Jeekel 1964a), but most authors ignored it, without discussing its true identity. We consider here S. mediterraneus to be a synonym of S. crassipes (new synonymy) because Verhoeff (1928, 1934, 1935) acknowledged that it agrees almost completely with typical S. crassipes, the only difference being in the relative size of the coxal pores in comparison to their ducts; however, this is probably a variable character without taxonomic value (our obs.); additionally, the same author later treated it as a mere variety of S. crassipes (Verhoeff 1935).

Distribution: most part of continental Europe, from the Iberian peninsula to eastern Europe; also in the British Isles and the Azores.