Mecistocephalus mikado Attems, 1928

Published, First, 2007, The Mecistocephalidae of the Japanese and Taiwanese islands (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha), Zootaxa 1396, pp. 1-84 : 39-41

Mecistocephalus mikado Attems, 1928

Fig. 49

[1] Mecistocephalus mikado Attems 1928 — Zool. Anz. 75: 117 (original description, key); fig. 4–7

Mecistocephalus (Mecistocephalus) mikado: Attems 1929 — Tierreich 52: 132 (key); fig. 139, 146 Mecistocephalus mikado: Lignau 1929 — Zool. Anz. 85: 208

Mecistocephalus mikado: Takakuwa 1934a — Annot. Zool. Japon. 14: 363

[2] Mecistocephalus mikado: Takakuwa 1934b — Bot. & Zool. Tokyo 2: 707 (redescription, key); fig. 3–4 Mecistocephalus mikado: Takakuwa 1934c — Bot. & Zool. Tokyo 2: 884

Mecistocephalus mikado: Verhoeff 1934 — Zool. Jahrb. Syst. 66: 30

Mecistocephalus mikado: Takakuwa 1936c — Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Formosa 26: 323

Mecistocephalus (Mecistocephalus) mikado: Takakuwa 1936b — Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Formosa 26: 433 (key) Mecistocephalus mikado: Verhoeff 1937 — Bull. Raffles Mus. Singapore 13: 233 (key)

[3] Mecistocephalus mikado: Attems 1938a — Mém. Mus. natn. Hist. Nat. Paris 6: 329 (redescription) (also as Mecistocephalus mikado var. mikado on page 330)

Mecistocephalus (Mecistocephalus) mikado: Takakuwa 1938a — Annot. Zool. Japon. 17: 354

[4] Mecistocephalus mikado: Takakuwa 1939 — Trans. Biogeogr. Soc. Japan 3: 123

Mecistocephalus mikado: Verhoeff 1939 — Zool. Jahrb. Syst. 72: 82 (key)

[5] Mecistocephalus (Mecistocephalus) mikado: Takakuwa 1940 — Fauna Nippon. 9: 63 (redescription, key); fig. 57 Mecistocephalus mikado: Takakuwa 1943 — Bull. Biogeogr. Soc. Japan 13: 170

Mecistocephalus mikado: Attems 1947 — Ann. Naturhistor. Mus. Wien 55: 98 (key)

Mecistocephalus mikado: Chamberlin & Wang 1952 — Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 65: 178

Mecistocephalus mikado: Attems 1953 — Mém. Mus. natn. Hist. nat. Paris, A Zool. 5: 137

Mecistocephalus micado [sic]: Dawydoff 1956 — C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 242: 2265

[6] Mecistocephalus mikado: Wang 1956 — Quart. J. Taiwan Mus. 9: 158

Mecistocephalus mikado: Dobroruka 1958 — Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr. 58: 59

Mecistocephalus mikado: Wang 1958 — Proc. X Intern. Congr. Ent.: 881

Mecistocephalus mikado: Strouhal 1961 — Ann. Naturhistor. Mus. Wien 64 (1960): 27

Mecistocephalus mikado: Mikoš 1991 — Biol. vestn. 39: fig. 1

Mecistocephalus mikado: Murakami 1993 — List Species Anim. Japan 5: 105

Mecistocephalus mikado: Lewis 1996 — Fauna Saudi Arabia 15: 151

Mecistocephalus mikado: Wang & Mauriès 1996 — Mém. Mus. natn. Hist. nat. Paris 169: 88

Mecistocephalus mikado: Shinohara 1999 — Pictorial Keys Soil Anim. Japan: 709

Mecistocephalus mikado: Bonato et al. 2003 — Syst. Entom. 28: 550, 551

Diagnosis. A Mecistocephalus species with 49 leg­bearing segments. Body length reaching about 6 cm in adults. Trunk without dark patches. Head about 1.5 times as long as wide. Areolate part of the clypeus with smooth insulae, each side with 4 setae; clypeal ratio slightly higher than 1. Anterior ala of the labrum subtrapezoidal, with the medial margin not reduced to a vertex. Buccae with setae both on the anterior and the posterior halves. Teeth of the first forcipular article nearly equal in size. Sternal sulcus furcate. Legs of the last pair without additional short, ventral setae.

Type material. Syntypes: Taiwan Anping, leg. Sauter, 19.9.1906, 1 specimen ; Yantempo, leg. Sauter, 20.7.1905; 1 specimen; Taiwan, Takao, leg. Sauter 10.11.1907; 15 adult, 8 juveniles , 4 dissected specimens (V. Stagl, pers. comm.).

Type localities. ‘ Japan, Takao , Anping, Yantempo’, Taiwan ( Attems, 1928) .

Depository of type material. Naturhistorisches Museum , Wien ( V. Stagl, pers. comm.)

Material examined. 4 specimens: 1 male, adult (57 mm), and 2 females, subadult (35 and 37 mm), from Shiauliouchiou , Taiwan, H.W. Chang leg. (date unknown), coll. AM and HWC ; 1 male, adult (47 mm), from Keelung, Taiwan, 23.I.2001, H.W. Chang leg., coll. HWC .

Description. Body size of adults between about 4 and 6 cm at least. Body colour yellow, sometimes with dark patches along the trunk; head and forcipular segment darker. Head 1.5–1.6 times as long as wide; frontal line present, rounded. Antennae 4.1–5.1 times as long as the head width. Apical sensilla about 10 µm long. Clypeus: clypeal ratio about 1.1–1.2; areolate part with 2–3 smooth insulae on each side, the medial pair, if present, smaller than the others; 4 setae on each side of the clypeus, inside the insulae; plagulae without evident sensilla or setae. Labrum: anterior ala subrectangular, medial margin about one half of the medial margin of the posterior ala; internal margins of side­pieces parallel; posterior margin of each side­piece sinuous, slightly convex close to the internal and external ends, usually with a small tooth close to the medial piece. Spiculum present, buccae with several setae in the posterior half and fewer setae in the anterior half. Mandible: about 8 well­developed lamellae; first lamella with 7 teeth; average intermediate lamella with about 20 teeth; basal tooth as long as the first tooth of the first lamella, with ondulated margin. First maxillae: anterior corners of coxosternum projecting; each medial projection about 1.7–1.8 times as long as wide, internal margin with 5–10 long setae, distal lobe 1.3–1.5 times as long as wide, clavate; each telopodite about 3.0 times as long as wide, with 5–7 basal setae, distal lobe slightly clavate. Second maxillae: article I of telopodite about 2.9–3.3 times as long as wide; article III about 1.9–2.4 times as long as wide, with many setae; apical claw present. Forcipular segment: width to length ratio of exposed part of coxosternum 0.8–1.3; cerrus composed of two convergent rows of setae and two lateral groups of setae; dorsal ridge of each pleuron evident. Forcipules: article I about 1.7–1.9 times as long as wide, basal tooth subequal to the distal tooth or slightly smaller; articles II and III each with a small tooth; tarsungulum with two small, basal teeth, one dorsal to the other; poison calyx extending backwards to the distal part of the forcipular article I. A total of 49 legbearing segments. Sternal sulcus furcate, with a right angle between branches. Last leg­bearing segment: sternum as long as wide; telopodites without dense short setae on the ventral side, and with 1–3 short apical spines.

Distribution in the considered area.

Taiwan: ‘Takao, Anping, Yantempo’ [1] (type localities); ‘ Taipei Normal School (Taipei)’ [2]; Gaoxiong ( Gaoxiong­xian , Taiwan ), Anping ( Tainan­xian , Taiwan ), Zhunan ( Miaoli­xian , Taiwan ) [5] (transcribed from Japanese ); ‘ Temple of Loyalty , Hualien’ [6]; Shiauliouchiou (new); Keelung (new) .

To be confirmed:

Honshu: ‘ Hiroshima (Hiroshima pref.)’ [2].

Shikoku: ‘Imabari (Ehime pref., Shikoku)’ [2].

Kyushu: ‘ Kumamoto (Kumamoto pref.), Aoshima (Miyazaki, Miyazaki pref.), Oita (Oita pref., Kyushu)’ [2].

Ryukyu Islands: ‘Ryukyu Islands’ [4].

General distribution. This species is well documented from Taiwan. Records from Honshu to Ryukyu Islands and from the Indochinese Peninsula [3] need cornfirmation (see Remarks).

Remarks. We are confident in identifying our specimens as M. mikado , mainly on the base of the presence of setae on the anterior part of the buccae ( Fig. 49), which is known only in this species among those occurring in the Japanese­Taiwanese area. However, these specimens do not match exactly the published descriptions in lacking dark patches along the trunk (present in the type series; Attems, 1928) and have a less elongated head, which is 1.5–1.6 times as long as wide in our specimens, but should be about 2 times according to the original description. Presence and extension of dark patches are, however, variable at least in some species of Mecistocephalus ( Bonato & Minelli, 2004; personal observations). The difference in the head ratio is probably due to an inaccurate approximation by Attems, as a value of 1.5 may be inferred from the drawing provided together with the original description ( Attems,1928).

The occurrence of this species north of Taiwan is uncertain. A general citation from ‘Japan’ by Attems (1928) probably refers to Taiwan, as the latter was politically part of Japan at that time. Localities listed by Takakuwa (1934b) from Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu should be considered doubtful because based on specimens not fully consistent with M. mikado , they were illustrated as possessing plagular pore­like sensilla). The same could be the case for the Ryukyu Islands ( Takakuwa, 1939). Subsequently, the same author cited this species only from the type localities, in Taiwan ( Takakuwa, 1940). Localities given by Takakuwa (1940) most probably correspond to the localities of the type series, though cited in a different way.