Th e scolopendromorph centipedes of Tunisia: taxonomy, distribution and habitats 77 The scolopendromorph centipedes (Chilopoda, Scolopendromorpha) of Tunisia: taxonomy, distribution and habitats Nesrine Akkari1, Pavel Stoev2, John G.E. Lewis3 1 Research Unit of Biodiversity and Biology of Populations, Institut Sup��rieur des Sciences Biologiques Appliqu��es de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia 2 National Museum of Natural History, Sofi a, Bulgaria 3 Somerset County Museum, Taunton Castle, Taunton, Somerset, UK and Entomology Department, Th e Natural History Museum, London, UK Corresponding author: Nesrine Akkari (nesrineakkari@gmail.com) Academic editor: Marzio Zapparoli | Received 3 October 2008 | Accepted 4 November 2008 | Published 9 November 2008 Citation: Akkari N, Stoev P, Lewis JGE (2008) Th e scolopendromorph centipedes (Chilopoda, Scolopendromorpha) of Tunisia: taxonomy, distribution and habitats. ZooKeys 3: 77-102. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.3.51 Abstract Th e present paper provides a review of the composition, distribution and habitat preferences of the scolopendromorph centipede fauna of Tunisia. Five (sub)genera and 8 (sub)species have hitherto been reported from the country, of which two are of uncertain status. After a study of signifi cant amount of new material collected in the period 2003-2008, 6 species, namely Scolopendra canidens Newport, 1844, S. morsitans Linnaeus, 1758, Cormocephalus gervaisianus (C.L. Koch, 1841), Otostigmus spinicaudus (Newport, 1844), Cryptops punicus Silvestri, 1896 and C. trisulcatus Br��lemann, 1902, were found in the country. New illustrations and, where appropriate, brief descriptions of the species are given, along with an identifi cation key for the Tunisian scolopendromorphs. Cryptops anomalans Newport, 1844, Scolopendra oraniensis Lucas, 1846 and S. cingulata Latreille, 1829 are excluded from the country���s list since all previous records are most likely based on misidentifi cations. Cryptops trisulcatus and C. punicus are recorded for the fi rst time from Tunisia and Libya, respectively. Th e taxonomic position of C. punicus is discussed and the species is transferred from the subgenus Trigonocryptops to Cryptops. Scolopendra mor- sitans scopoliana is synonymised under S. morsitans. S. canidens, O. spinicaudus and C. punicus are well adapted to arid and semidesert biotopes and have much wider ranges compared to the other three species which are restricted to the northern, more humid parts of the country. S. canidens is the only myriapod in Tunisia found in a pure sandy desert. Keywords Scolopendra, Cormocephalus, Otostigmus, Cryptops, deserts, oases, identifi cation key, Tunisia, Libya ZooKeys 3: 77-102 (2008) doi: 10.3897/zookeys.3.51 www.pensoftonline.net/zookeys Copyright Nesrine Akkari et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Launched to accelerate biodiversity research A peer-reviewed open-access journal RESEARCH ARTICLE

Nesrine Akkari, Pavel Stoev & John G.E. Lewis / ZooKeys 3: 77-102 (2008) 78 Introduction Th e scolopendromorph centipedes of Tunisia have never been studied intensively. Prior to Silvestri���s (1896) paper ���Una escursione in Tunisia������ only two species, Scol- opendra oraniensis Lucas, 1846 and Scolopendra mediterranea var. africana Verhoeff , 1891 collected in the cities of Tunis and Gabes respectively [misspelled Ghades], had been recorded from the country (Pocock 1892, Verhoeff , 1891, Verhoeff 1893). After studying topotypic material of the latter, Silvestri (1896) proposed its synonymy with S. oraniensis. In the same publication he also recorded Cupipes (now Cormocephalus) gervaisianus (C.L. Koch, 1841) and Cryptops anomalans Newport, 1844 for Tunisia, and described a new variety, punicus, of C. anomalans. Verhoeff (1901) described Oto- stigma tunetanum from Tunis which Kraepelin (1903) later synonymized with Oto- stigmus spinicaudus (Newport, 1844). Kraepelin also reported S. morsitans scopoliana C.L. Koch, 1841 and S. canidens Newport, 1844, although he did not specify where exactly these species were collected. He disregarded the separate status of punicus. Attems (1902) reported Scolopendra morsitans Linnaeus, 1758 from Medjez-el-Bab in North Tunisia. A few years later, he (Attems 1908) also identifi ed the myriapods amassed by Henri Gadeau de Kerville during his remarkable expedition to Kroumirie (NW Tunisia), confi rming the occurrence in the area of C. gervaisianus and C. anoma- lans. Br��lemann (1904) reported Scolopendra morsitans and S. canidens from several localities in Tunisia and was the fi rst to summarize the information on the Myriapoda of North Africa, providing a checklist of all species known at that time (Brolemann 1921). He mentioned altogether 9 (sub)species of Scolopendromorpha for Tunisia, including Scolopendra cingulata Latreille, 1829, although, like Kraepelin, he did not mention any specifi c localities. In another paper (Brolemann 1928) he raised Cryptops anomalans punicus to full species rank and transferred it to the genus Trigonocryptops Verhoeff , 1906. In his monograph on Scolopendromorpha Attems (1930) excluded S. oraniensis and S. cingulata from the list of Tunisian species and probably being una- ware of Brolemann���s publication, regarded C. punicus as a synonym of C. anomalans. Studying a small collection of myriapods collected by Dr. Cloudsley-Th ompson in Tunisia, Turk (1955) recorded S. canidens and S. clavipes C.L. Koch, 1847 from Jebel Cherchera, west of Kairouan. Th e same material was later referred to by Cloudsley- Th ompson (1956). Dobroruka (1968) reported S. morsitans, S. canidens (incl. S. c. cyrenaica Verhoeff , 1908), and C. gervaisianus from several localities in Tunisia. Lewis (1969) recorded Scolopendra amazonica B��cherl, 1946, which is currently considered a junior synonym of S. morsitans (W��rmli 1975, Koch 1983), from a mountain near Soukahas, Tunis, at 1000-1500 m elevation. Th is record from 1894 may refer to the Barbary state of Tunis rather than the city. Th is seems probable as there is no settle- ment with this name near Tunis, nor a mountain that high. Th e taxonomic status and the distribution in the Mediterranean region of the species of S. canidens group were revised by W��rmli (1980). Two of the subspecies, S. canidens oraniensis and S. canidens cretica Attems, 1902, were given full species rank, while some others including S. c. cyrenaica were synonymized. Th e author concluded

Th e scolopendromorph centipedes of Tunisia: taxonomy, distribution and habitats 79 that in Tunisia the group, which comprises also S. clavipes and S. dalmatica C.L. Koch, 1847, is represented only by S. canidens. Recently, Zapparoli (2002), Zapparoli et al. (2004), Simaiakis and Mylonas (2008) mentioned Tunisia in their overviews of the world range of Scolopendra cingulata. Th e centipede fauna of the Italian islands Lampedusa, Linosa and Pantelleria, which are situated close to Tunisian coast, was studied by Zapparoli (1995). On Pantelleria, which is located approx. 70 km off the Tunisian coast he recorded C. punicus, C. trisulcatus Br��lemann, 1902, and S. cingu- lata, while on the Pelagic islands Lampedusa and Linosa lying ca. 120 km off the coast S. canidens and C. punicus were found. CHILOBASE, the world catalogue of Chilo- poda (Minelli 2006) lists the following taxa: C. anomalans, C. punicus, C. gervaisianus, S. oraniensis and O. spinicaudus for Tunisia. Th e Tunisian scolopendromorph fauna comprises 5 (sub)genera and 8 (sub)spe- cies, of which, the occurrence of S. cingulata and C. anomalans needs confi rmation. Almost all the remaining species are known from single outdated records, mainly from the northern, generally better prospected parts of the country (e.g. Kroumirie and Mo- gods regions). Th e scolopendromorph fauna of the arid, semidesert and desert regions in the central and southern parts of the country (e.g. the Tunisian Ridge, the Sahel, the plain of Kasserine, the Grand Erg Oriental and the coastal plain of Jeff ara) remained virtually unknown as had the biology and ecology of all Tunisian species. In the last fi ve years abundant material of Scolopendromorpha collected in each of the four main bioclimatic zones of the country: Humid (Kroumirie and Mogods regions), Subhumid (Cap Bon Peninsula), Semiarid���Arid (Central Tunisia), Arid (me- ridian Tunisia, south of 36th parallel) was accumulated and investigated. Th e aim of present paper is to put on record the results of the identifi cation of this signifi cant collection and to provide detailed information on the taxonomy, distribution, habitats and in some cases also the biology of scolopendromorphs in Tunisia. New illustrations based on the freshly collected material and a key are provided to facilitate the identifi - cation of the species. Material and methods Unless stated otherwise, the material treated herein has been collected by N.A. and P.S. during a month long collecting trip in Tunisia conducted in March 2008, and also in the course of individual excursions by the fi rst author to diff erent regions of the country in the period 2003-2008. Various types of habitats were prospected for scolopendromorphs: oak forests (Quercus suber, Q. faginea, Q. ilex), pine forest (Pinus halepensis), open habitats dominated by Stipa tenacissima, arid rocky planes with scat- tered palm trees, pure sandy and rocky deserts, coastal and mountainous oases domi- nated by palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera), etc. All the material was preserved in 70 or 96 % ethanol and was shared between the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, National Museum of Natural History, Sofi a and University of Tunis El Manar. Close up photos were taken under an Olympus SZH 10 research microscope with an Olym-

Nesrine Akkari, Pavel Stoev & John G.E. Lewis / ZooKeys 3: 77-102 (2008) 80 pus Altra-20 colour camera, and were processed using the program Adobe Photoshop CS2. A complete chronological list of citations related to species occurrence in Tunisia is also provided. Morphological terminology follows Lewis et al. (2005). Abbreviations: ad. = adult, alt. = altitude, Distr. = District, ex. = exemplar/s, juv. = juvenile, N.P. = National Park, subad. = subadult. Species account Order Scolopendromorpha Family Scolopendridae Scolopendra canidens Newport, 1844 Figs 1-7 Scolopendra dalmatica var. africana Verhoeff , 1891, Berliner entomologische Zeitschrift, 36: 69. Scolopendra mediterranea var. africana: Verhoeff 1893, Berliner entomologische Zeitschrift, 38: 319, fi g. a. Scolopendra oraniensis: Pocock 1892, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 25. Scolopendra oraniensis: Silvestri 1896, Naturalista Siciliano, An. I, (Nuova Serie), 8: 150. Scolopendra canidens: Kraepelin 1903, Mitteilungen aus dem Naturhistorischen Museum in Hamburg, 20: 248, fi g. 157. Scolopendra canidens and S. oraniensis: Br��lemann 1904, Bulletin du Mus��um d���Histoire Na- turelle 6: 318. Scolopendra canidens and S. oraniensis: Brolemann 1921, Bulletin de la Soci��t�� des Sciences Naturelles du Maroc, I (3-6): 104-105. Scolopendra canidens canidens: Attems 1930, Das Tierreich, 54: 36. Scolopendra canidens and S. canidens oraniensis: Brolemann 1932, Bulletin de la Soci��t�� d���His- toire Naturelle d���Afrique du Nord, 23 (2): 52. Scolopendra canidens canidens and S. clavipes: Turk 1955, Annals and Magazine of Natural His- tory, ser. 12, vol. 8: 281. Scolopendra canidens canidens and S. clavipes: Cloudsley-Th ompson 1956, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, ser. 12, vol. 9: 328. Scolopendra canidens canidens and S. canidens cyrenaica: Dobroruka 1968, Revue de Zoologie et de Botanique Africaines 78(3-4): 203. Scolopendra canidens: W��rmli 1980, Sitzungsberichte der ��sterreichischen Akademie der Wis- senschaften, 189: 346, Abb. 10, 26. Scolopendra canidens: Lewis 1985, Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde, 55 (1): 128, fi g. 11, map 2. Material examined. 1 juv., Sousse, N35��49.57/ E10��38.19, alt. 11 m, 17.2.2004 1 ad., same locality, 22.3.2004 1 juv., Le Kef, N36��11.44/ E08��44.39, alt. 623 m, 24.10.2003 2 ex., Sfax, Agareb Steppe, N34��44.13/ E10��32.15, alt. 68 m, olive orch- ard, under stones, 25.11.2003 1 juv., Mahdia Distr., Bekalta, N35��37.06/ E11��00.44, alt. 12 m, border of agricultural land, under stones, 30.10.2003 1 ad., 3 juv., Sousse

Th e scolopendromorph centipedes of Tunisia: taxonomy, distribution and habitats 81 Distr., Sidi Khalifa, N36��15.18/ E10��26.48, alt. 1 m, open area, 17.2.2004 2 ex., Mo- nastir, N35��46.43/ E10��49.48, alt. 6 m, 22.12.2004 1 ex., Sousse Distr., Bou Ficha, N36��17.55/ E10��27.30, alt. 6 m, 22.3.2005 1 ex., Hergla, N36��01.53/ E10��30.37, alt. 3 m, coast, 23.3.2005 2 ad., 2 subad., Sidi Bouzid Distr., Bou Hedma N.P., N34��30.28/ E09��35.46, alt. 574 m, semi dry area dominated by Acacia raddiana, 20.3.2006 1 sub- ad., Nabeul Distr., Korba, N36��34.36/ E10��51.02, alt. 3 m, coast, 12.11.2006 12 ex., Sfax Distr., Kerkennah Island, Chargui, N34��42.34/ E11��09.14, alt. 3 m, sandy open area, with scattered palm trees, under stones, 20.3.2007 2 ad., Kebili, Fatnassa Oasis, May 2007 1 ad., Zaouit El Hareth Oasis, 20.5.2007 1 ad., Makthar, 12.5.2005 2 juv., Figs 1-7. Scolopendra canidens: 1 ��� head plate 2 ��� forcipular coxosternum and forcipules 3 ��� leg 1 4 ��� spiracle 5 ��� coxopleural process, lateral view 6-7 ��� prefemur of ultimate leg, dorsal and ventral views, respectively.