Qiao Sha, Xiao Shu-Qing, Di Zhi-Yong. 2021. Scolopocryptops zhijinensis sp.n. and a key to species of scolopocryptopine centipedes from China (Scolopendromorpha: Scolopocryptopidae) // Arthropoda Selecta. Vol.30. No.1: 28–33 [in English].
School of Life Sciences, Institute of Life Sciences and Green Development, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, Hebei, China; Email: zydi@ustc.edu.cn
doi: 10.15298/arthsel.30.1.02
ABSTRACT. Scolopocryptops zhijinensis sp.n., a new scolopocryptopine centipede species, is described from a karst cave in Guizhou Province, China. By its morphological characters, S. zhijinensis sp.n. is close to S. troglocaudatus Chagas et Bichuette, 2015, a troglobite from a siliciclastic area of eastern Brazil. They share similar troglomorphic features, such as depigmentation and long appendages. In S. zhijinensis sp.n., the antennal segments are stout, only one basal article is sparsely setose, vs. the other segments being densely so; the anterior margin of the forcipular coxosternum is straight and the tooth-plates are narrow, not fused together at the midline; the tergite of the ultimate leg-bearing segment is margined; the coxopleurite has relatively sparse pores; the ventral spinous process of the prefemur of the ultimate pair of legs is long, vs. a short dorsomedial spinous process; the femur of the ultimate pair of legs is shorter than the prefemur and tibia combined. Scolopocryptops zhijinensis sp.n. is only the third troglobitic scolopocryptopine to be described in the world, and the first discovered in China. With the description of this new species, the number of Scolopocryptops species known from China amounts to eight, all being keyed.
KEY WORDS: Cave, Chilopoda, taxonomy, new species, Guizhou, southern China.