Lithobius viriatus Sseliwanoff, 1881

Dyachkov, Yurii V., 2024, On some remarkable records of Chilopoda (Geophilomorpha, Lithobiomorpha) from Turkmenistan, Ecologica Montenegrina 71, pp. 317-322 : 320-322

Lithobius viriatus Sseliwanoff, 1881

Figs 1 , 7–10 .

Material. 1 female ( ZMMU Rc 8408), [ Turkmenistan], Ashgabat City , botanical garden [N37°57'6", E58°20'46"], 17.IV.1990, coll. AM .

Distribution. Eastern Mediterranean Region ( Stoev 2000; Dyachkov et al. 2022)

Remarks. L. viriatus is new to the fauna of Turkmenistan and Middle Asia.

Conclusions

To date, at least 20 species from 14 genera, 8 families, and 4 orders are known from Turkmenistan.

Koped-Dag Mt. Range is one of the species-rich places in Turkmenistan. Ten chilopod species are recorded here: Dignathodon microcephalus , Henia bicarinata (both Dignathodontidae ), Bothriogaster signata (Kessler, 1874) , Polyporogaster porosa (Sseliwanoff, 1881) (both Himantariidae ), Clinopodes escherichii , Stenotaenia sp. (both Geophilidae ), Lithobius icis Zalesskaja, 1978 ( Lithobiidae ), Cryptops caucasius Verhoeff, 1934 ( Cryptopidae ), Scolopendra canidens Newport, 1844 , and S. mirabilis (Porat, 1876) (both Scolopendridae ). Several species are recorded from the vicinity of this mountain range, e.g. Polyporogaster geminata ( Silvestri, 1895) , Scutigera coleoptrata (Linnaeus, 1758) , and Lithobius viriatus .

As noted by Kryzhanovsky (1965), the fauna of insects of the Koped-Dag Mt. Range has an abundance of species common with Transcaucasia and Western Asia, some Euro-Caucasian insect species are also known from this mountain range. These peculiarities are also observed in the corresponding fauna of Chilopoda: at least eight out of ten species recorded on the Koped-Dag Mt. Range are also known from the Caucasus or/and Western Asia (except Polyporogaster porosa and Stenotaenia sp. ).

It is worth recognizing that the fauna of Chilopoda from Turkmenistan is still poorly studied. We should expect to find other species known from the adjacent territories.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to A.A. Schileyko (ZMMU) who loaned material. I also wish to and N.J. Speranskaya (ASU) who provided access to an Olympus BX51 stereo microscope. I am grateful to reviewers for critical comments on the manuscript.

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Figures

Figure 1. Distribution of Dignathodon microcephalus (Lucas, 1846), Henia bicarinata (Meinert, 1870) (both circle), Clinopodes escherichii (Verhoeff, 1896) (triangle), and Lithobius viriatus Sseliwanoff, 1881 (square) in Turkmenistan. Abbreviations: KZ – Kazakhstan.

Figures 7–10. Lithobius viriatus Sseliwanoff, 1881 (female, Rc 8408): 7 – dental margin of forcipular coxosternite, ventral view; 8–10 – gonopods, mesal, dorsal, and ventral views. Scale: 0.2 mm.