Mecistocephalus heteropus

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Mecistocephalus heteropus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Myriapoda
Class: Chilopoda
Order: Geophilomorpha
Family: Mecistocephalidae
Genus: Mecistocephalus
Species:
M. heteropus
Binomial name
Mecistocephalus heteropus
Humbert, 1865

Mecistocephalus heteropus is a species of soil centipede in the family Mecistocephalidae. [1] This centipede is found in Sri Lanka. [1] [2] This species has 49 pairs of legs and can reach 85 mm in length. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Discovery and distribution

This species was first described in 1865 by the Swiss naturalist Aloïs Humbert based on type material found in the Pundel-Oya valley in Sri Lanka. [3] [6] This centipede is endemic to Sri Lanka. [1] [2] In Sri Lanka, this species has also been recorded in the village of Pattipola and at an elevation of 7,000 feet on the Horton Plains. [5] [4]

Taxonomy

Humbert originally described this centipede as a new species under the name Mecistocephalus heteropus. [3] In 1919, the Italian myriapodologist Filippo Silvestri deemed this centipede to be a subspecies of the species Lamnonyx punctifrons. [5] In 1929, the Austrian myriapodologist Carl Attems placed both this species and its subspecies in the genus Mecistocephalus instead. [4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bonato, L.; Chagas Junior, A.; Edgecombe, G.D.; Lewis, J.G.E.; Minelli, A.; Pereira, L.A.; Shelley, R.M.; Stoev, P.; Zapparoli, M. (2016). "Mecistocephalus heteropus Humbert, 1865". ChiloBase 2.0 - A World Catalogue of Centipedes (Chilopoda). Retrieved 2025-10-20.
  2. 1 2 Dissanayake, Duminda S.B.; Thewarage, Lasanthika D.; Wickramasinghe, S. (2016). "An annotated checklist of centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) of Sri Lanka". NeBIO. 7 (3): 71-77 [71] – via ResearchGate.
  3. 1 2 3 Humbert, A. (1865). "Essai sur les myriapodes de Ceylan". Mèmoires de la Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genéve (in French). 18: 1-62 [19] – via HathiTrust.
  4. 1 2 3 Attems, Carl (1929). Lfg. 52 Myriapoda, 1: Geophilomorpha (in German). De Gruyter. p. 132. doi:10.1515/9783111430638.
  5. 1 2 3 Silvestri, F. (1919). "Contributions to a knowledge of the Chilopoda Geophilomorpha of India". Record of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 16: 45-107 [49-55] – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  6. ↑ Hollier, John; Stagl, Verena (2020-01-01). "The Chilopoda (Myriapoda) described by Aloïs Humbert, Henri de Saussure and Leo Zehntner". Revue suisse de Zoologie. 123 (2): 227–233 [230]. doi:10.5281/zenodo.155167.
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