Mecistocephalus monticolens Chamberlin, 1920

Published, First, 2007, The Mecistocephalidae of the Japanese and Taiwanese islands (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha), Zootaxa 1396, pp. 1-84 : 38

Mecistocephalus monticolens Chamberlin, 1920

Fig. 51

[1] Mecistocephalus monticolens: Chamberlin 1920b — Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. 6: 334 (original description); pl.12: fig. 7– 11 Mecistocephalus monticolens: Chamberlin 1922 — Psyche 29: 178 Mecistocephalus monticolens: Attems 1928 — Zool. Anz. 75: 119 (key) Mecistocephalus (Mecistocephalus) monticolens: Attems 1929 — Tierreich 52: 137 (key); fig. 150 Mecistocephalus monticolens: Attems 1938a — Mém. Mus. natn. Hist. Nat. Paris 6: 329 Mecistocephalus monticolus [sic]: Verhoeff 1939 — Zool. Jahrb. Syst. 72: 82 (key) Mecistocephalus monticolens: Attems 1947 — Ann. Naturhistor. Mus. Wien 55: 97 (key)

[2] Mecistocephalus monticolens: Wang 1956 — Quart. J. Taiwan Mus. 9: 158 Mecistocephalus monticolens: Wang 1958 — Proc. X Intern. Congr. Ent.: 881 Mecistocephalus monticolens: Lewis 1991 — Mem. Mus. Victoria 52: 350 Mecistocephalus monticolens: Wang & Mauriès 1996 — Mém. Mus. natn. Hist. Nat. Paris 169: 89

Diagnosis. A Mecistocephalus species with 49 leg­bearing segments. Body length reaching at least 3.5 cm. Trunk with dark patches. Head about 1.8 times as long as wide. Areolate part of the clypeus without smooth insulae, each side with 3 setae; clypeal ratio about 1.4. Anterior ala of the labrum subtriangular, with medial margin reduced to a vertex. Buccae with setae in the posterior half only. Forcipular article I with two teeth, one distal to the other, the distal tooth larger than the basal one. About 20 pores on each coxopleuron.

Type material. Holotype: sex and age not stated, about 35 mm long ( Chamberlin, 1920b).

Type locality. ‘ Gede’ , Java ( Chamberlin, 1920b) .

Depository of type material. National Museum of Natural History , Washington ( Chamberlin, 1920b, as ‘ U.S. National Museum’) .

Material examined. None.

Description. Body size reaching at least 3,5 cm. Body colour yellowish, with some dark patches along the trunk, head and forcipular segment darker. Head about 1.8 times as long as wide. Frontal line present, rounded. Clypeus: clypeal ratio about 1.4; areolate part without smooth insulae, 3 setae on each side. Labrum: anterior ala subtriangular, the medial margin reduced to a vertex; posterior margin of each side­piece sinuous, convex in the proximal half, slightly projecting in form of a small tooth close to the medial piece. Spiculum present. Forcipules: article I with two teeth, the basal one smaller than the distal one; articles II and III with a tooth each, the one on article III larger than the one on article II; tarsungulum with one rounded basal tooth. A total of 49 leg­bearing segments. Sternal sulcus apparently not furcate, sometimes with two short, faintly recognizable branches. Last leg­bearing segment: sternum subtriangular, about 20 pores on each coxopleuron.

Distribution in the considered area.

To be confirmed:

Taiwan: ‘Hualien’ [2].

General distribution. This species is surely present in Java [1], and possibly in Taiwan (see Remarks).

Remarks. M. monticolens remains poorly characterized, differing from the most similar M. yamashinai and M. pauroporus in the colour of the trunk (patched in M. monticolens , vs. uniformely yellow in the other two species), in the elongation of head (1.8 times as long as wide in M. monticolens vs. 1.6 times in M. yamashinai and 1.4 times in M. pauroporus ) and possibly even in the length of the anterior ala of the labrum (reduced to a vertex in M. monticolens , longer in the other species), although, the comparison of this feature between different species, in particular when described by different authors, requires caution, as in the past little attention was paid to this trait.

Due to the difficult intepretation of this species we consider the record for Taiwan in need of confirmation.