Scolopendra morsitans Linnaeus, 1758

Scolopendra morsitans Linnaeus, 1758 View in CoL

Examined material.

52 specimens: NHMUK 015991435 , 33 juveniles; Casuarina litter, Picard , Aldabra, 18. 04. 1974, leg. V. W. Spaull ; NHMUK 015991436 , 1 specimen, Casuarina, Picard , Aldabra, 04. 02. 1974 ; NHMUK 015991437 , 1 specimen, Ochna soil, Picard , Aldabra, 15. 02. 1974 ; NHMUK 015991438 ; 2 specimens, mixed scrub, Picard , 24. 12. 1974 ; NHMUK 015991439 , 1 specimen, Thespesia litter, Cinq Cases , Aldabra, 15. 11. 1973 ; NHMUK 015991441 , 5 specimens, Black Path , Picard, 1975 ; NHMUK 015991442 , 1 specimen, Picard , 03. 12. 1973 ; NHMUK 015991443 , 1 specimen, Picard , 18. 01. 1974 ; NHMUK 015991440 , 4 specimens, Picard , 18. 11. 1974 ; NHMUK 015991444 , 1 specimen, Pitfall trap 5 , 08. 12. 1974 ; NHMUK 015991447 , 1 specimen, South Island , Aldabra, 13–20.03. 1968, leg. B. Cogan & A. Hutson ; NHMUK 015991448 , 1 specimen, Ile. Michel , 02.1968, leg. B. Cogan & A. Hutson .

Remarks.

Specimens of S. morsitans Linnaeus, 1758 collected from mainland Africa, originally identified as Scolopendra amazonica Bücherl, 1946 overlap with the specimens from the Aldabra Atoll in several characters (Table 2 View Table 2 ) ( Lewis 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969), but generally have a greater number of glabrous basal antennal articles, a character in which specimens from the Aldabra Atoll more closely match Indian specimens of S. morsitans previously assigned to S. amazonica ( Jangi 1955, 1959). In the absence of newly collected material from which molecular data can be collected to evaluate possible interspecific delimitation between different population of S. morsitans , we assign material collected in the Aldabra Atoll to S. morsitans , following the conclusions on interspecific variation within this taxon reached by Würmli (1975). Subsequent phylogenetic analyses of molecular data for S. morsitans identified multiple lineages within this taxon ( Joshi and Karanth 2011; Siriwut et al. 2016), potentially indicating the existence of a cryptic species complex as suggested by recent taxonomic review ( Lewis 2010 a). Until the global taxonomy of S. morsitans is interrogated using molecular data to establish if this is the case, we classify the examined material as S. morsitans .

Additionally, specimens were compared to the original description of the morphologically similar and geographically proximate Scolopendra antananarivoensis Kronmüller, 2010 . Material from the Aldabra Atoll did not exhibit the characters given as diagnostic for S. antananarivoensis , lacking a longitudinal median depression on sternite 21 and not having a distinctly more elongate coxopleural process ( Kronmüller 2010).