Mecistocephalus porteri Silvestri, 1899

Thofern, Detlef, Dupérré, Nadine & Harms, Danilo, 2021, An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg, Zootaxa 4977 (1), pp. 1-103 : 17-18

12. Mecistocephalus porteri Silvestri, 1899

Silvestri 1899: 149–150 (as Mecistocephalus porteri sp. n.) Type locality and specimens. Hab[itat]: Coipué, Temucu.

Dimensions. Pedum paria [leg pairs] ♀ 47–51. ♂ 47–49. Long. corp. [body length] mm. 46; lat. corp. [width] mm. 2.

Type material. Syntypes 4 ( ZMH-A0000567 , ZMH-A0000569 , ZMH-A0006392-6393 ). CHILE: Cautín Prov- ince, Coiqué (near Temuco) [ca. 38°44’S; 72°35’W] .

Preservation. 2 jars (second jar with a vial). Jar 1 ( ZMH-A 0000567, ZMH-A 0006392): Label 1. Chile Dr. Delfin leg. ded. 11.III.1896; Label 2. Pachymerinus porteri Silv. Para-Typen. Dr. Delfin Chile. d. 11.III.96, Silvestri det.; Label 3. Paratypes Pachymerinus porteri Silvestri —Vidit: Crabill, 12. V.60, Hamburg. See microslide for front and rear ends including mouthparts of paratype “A”. Rest of “A” housed here in (Crabill handwriting). Jar 2 (ZMH- A0000569, ZMH-A 0006393): Label. Paratype Pachymerinus porteri Silv. , Chile: Dr. Delfin leg. ded. 11.III.1896. det. R.E. Crabill (Crabill handwriting). Vial 1: Label. Paratype “A” see micro. Slide.

Old type catalogue. Weidner (1960), p. 63, No. 23. Paratypes 4.

Taxonomic remarks. Silvestri (1899) did not state the number of specimens in his description and all specimens in the type series are syntypes.

Curatorial remarks. 3 microscope slides are held at the ZMH: 2 slides are only labelled „ porteri A“ and 1 slide labeld “ Paratype ‘A’ Pachymerinus porteri Silv. fecit: Crabill 12. V.60 Hamburg” but damaged (contra note on file card: “2 Präp. Paratypoide, Chile, Silvestri det. et publ. 1899. Die Präparate wurden am 12.5.1960 von R. E. Crabill aus Washington hergestellt [Preparation was done by R. R.Crabill from Washington on 12.5.1960.]“) .

Additional type material. There is 1 specimen in alcohol, head, Mx , Md on slide mounted by Attems (syntype), from Chile, labelled Coronel in the vial and labelled Coiqué (type locality) on the slide (don. Museum Hamburg 1934) held at the NHMW (no. 7087). Ilie et al. (2009: 56) noted: ”Attems labelled the slide: ‘Hamburg 1934, Coiqué, Chile’, which is the location in Silvestri’s original description, and he labelled the vial: ‘Hamburg 1934, Coronel, Chile’. The head with Mx and Md is certainly prepared from the individual in the vial, but their location marks do not match”. Obviously Attems mixed up the locality data at some stage .

Collection remarks. The specimens were collected by Federico Delfin (1851–1904), a naval doctor and research associate at the Natural History Museum Valparaiso.

Current systematic position. Pachymerinus porteri ( Silvestri, 1899) ; transferred to this genus by Silvestri (1905: 759).