Lamyctes coeculus (Brölemann, 1889)

Figs. 1­4

Lithobius coeculus Brölemann, 1889: 273.

Lamyctinus coeculus: Silvestri, 1909: 39, fig. 1.

Lamyctes coeculus: Brölemann, 1930: 336, figs. 463­465. Lamyctinus coeculus: Chamberlin, 1943: 25.

Lamyctinus coeculus: Auerbach, 1952: 413.

Lamyctes coeculus: Lehtinen, 1960: 105.

Lamyctes coeculus: Enghoff, 1975: 45 ­46.

Lamyctes coeculus: Negrea & Matic, 1996: 226, figs. 1­3. Lamyctes coeculus: Zapparoli & Shelley, 2000: 37 (with Hawaiian records). Lamyctinus coeculus: Edgecombe et al., 2002, figs. 1J, 3K, 6D. Lamyctinus coeculus: Edgecombe, 2003, fig. 38E.

Material examined: Australia (New South Wales): AM KS 81367, 10 females, Victoria Park, near Alstonville, 28º54'S 153º25'E, G.D. Edgecombe & Z. Johanson, 18 June 2001, rainforest, soil; AM KS57961, 12 females, 13.4 km N Colo Heights work depot, Mellong Range, 33º16'S 150º41'E, G.D. Edgecombe, G. Giribet & Z. Johanson, 14 March 2000, eucalypt forest, soil; AM KS 81368, 2 females, Sydney, garden at Australian Museum, G.D. Edgecombe, 27 October 2001; ANIC (ex. Berlesate 850), 1 female, Castle Flat, Clyde R., 32º21'S 150º13'E, L. Hill, 5 September 1982, floodplain, under Acacia; ANIC (ex. Berlesate 833), 7 females, 4.5 km WNW Pigeon House Mt, 35º21'S 150º13'E, L. Hill, 16 May 1982. Lord Howe Island: AM KS 81369, 3 females, SE aspect of Transit Hill near summit, 31º32'13"S 159º04'13'E, Australian Museum, 24 November 2000, closed rainforest.

Argentina (Tucumán Province): MCZ DNA 100472, 3 females, Horco Molle, Cerro San Javier, San Miguel de Tucumán, C. Mattoni, 16 September 2001.

Democratic Republic of Congo: CAS, 3 females, S slope of Mt Kahuzi, 1900 m, E.S. Ross & R.E. Leech, 5 September 1957.

Discussion: Previous morphological descriptions based on material from Italy (Brölemann 1889), Mexico (Silvestri 1909) and Palestine (Negrea & Matic 1996) apply to specimens from Australia, Argentina and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Particularly distinctive characters are the complete absence of ocelli, 24 antennal articles with the series of articles distal to article 4 being of similar size and shape (Figs. 1, 2) (versus shortened articles in pairs alternating with groups of longer articles in other species of Lamyctes), the dental margin of the maxillipede having two true teeth, a median swelling, and a conical, seta­like pseudoporodont (Figs. 3, 4), and distal spinose projections on the tibiae confined to legs 1­11.

Molecular sequence data for the nuclear ribosomal genes 18S and 28S rRNA and the mitochondrial genes cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and 16S rRNA for a New South Wales specimen of Lamyctes coeculus were analysed by Edgecombe et al. (2002) (Gen­ Bank accession numbers AF334275, AF334296, AF334315, and AF334339). Sequences for the same four markers for a specimen from Horco Molle in Cerro San Javier, Tucumán Province, Argentina, are identical (GenBank AY213735, AY213745, AY214427, and AY214374). This identity contrasts with variability in these four markers displayed by other geographically widespread centipede species. DNA sequences for three populations of Henicops maculatus from New South Wales, Tasmania, and New Zealand (Edgecombe et al. 2002) show that, for the most conserved marker, 18S rRNA, the three populations have considerable variation, including length variation ranging from 2162 to 2272. All variation is obviously concentrated in some of the hypervariable regions found in the henicopid species. Some variation is also found among three Queensland populations of Paralamyctes monteithi examined, although an insertion/deletion (hereafter indel) of only one bp occurs among these populations in the 18S rRNA. Intraspecific variation within the mitochondrial markers, however, is fairly high in both H. maculatus and P. monteithi. Considerable variation is also found between populations of the scutigeromorph Scutigera coleoptrata from Barcelona, Spain, and New York, USA (GenBank accession numbers AF173238 and AF000772). These patterns lead us to regard the distribution of Lamyctes coeculus as synanthropic, as opposed to geographic variation in native species for Henicops maculatus and Paralamyctes monteithi.

The specimens from Argentina match the illustrations of the maxillipede dental margin and description of Lamyctes inermipes pusillus Demange & Silva, 1976, which was described from Tucumán. The distinctive features of this subspecies relative to three others include a body length of 4­5 mm, a small number of antennal articles (usually 24), and maxillipede dentition with two strong teeth and a pseudoporodont developed as a stout, conical seta. Each of these characters corresponds to Lamyctes coeculus (e.g., the maxillipede details in Figs. 16­20 of Demange & Silva, 1976, are precisely as in Fig. 4 here). We suspect that L. inermipes pusillus may be a junior synonym of Lamyctes coeculus but refrain from making a formal synonymy without examining the material.