Stenotaenia Koch, 1847:: a hitherto unrecognized lineage of western Palaearctic centipedes with unusual diversity in body size and segment number (Chilopoda: Geophilidae)

Based on morphological evidence, we newly define the genus Stenotaenia Koch, 1847 (= Scnipaeus Bergsoe & Meinert, 1866; = Simophilus Silvestri, 1896; = Onychopodogaster Verhoeff, 1902; = Insigniporus Attems, 1903; = Notadenophilus Verhoeff, 1928; = Bithyniphilus Verhoeff, 1941; = Schizopleres Folkmanova, 1956; = Euronesogeophilus Matic, 1972; all syn. nov.) as including the following 15 species: Stenotaenia linearis ( Koch, 1835) (= Geophilus simplex Gervais, 1835; = Geophilus brevicornis Koch, 1837; = Scnipaeus foveolatus Bergsoe & Meinert, 1866; = Himantarium caldarium Meinert, 1886 syn. nov.; = Geophilus ( Geophilus) linearis var. polyporus Verhoeff, 1896 syn. nov.; = Geophilus ormanyensis Attems, 1903 syn. nov., after lectotype designation; = Insigniporus acuneli Capuse, 1968 syn. nov.) from central and northern Europe; Stenotaenia frenum ( Meinert, 1870) from northern Africa; Stenotaenia romana ( Silvestri, 1895) (= Geophilus silvestrii Verhoeff, 1928 syn. nov.) and Stenotaenia sorrentina ( Attems, 1903) (= Geophilus forficularius Fanzago, 1881 syn. nov.; = Geophilus linearis abbreviatus Verhoeff, 1925 syn. nov.) from the Italian peninsula and Sardinia; Stenotaenia antecribellata ( Verhoeff, 1898) (= Simophilus albanensis Attems, 1929 syn. nov.), Stenotaenia cribelliger ( Verhoeff, 1898), Stenotaenia palpiger ( Attems, 1903), Stenotaenia rhodopensis ( Kaczmarek, 1970), and Stenotaenia sturanyi ( Attems, 1903) from the Balkan peninsula; Stenotaenia naxia ( Verhoeff, 1901) (= Geophilus graecus Verhoeff, 1902) from the Aegean islands; Stenotaenia asiaeminoris ( Verhoeff, 1898) and Stenotaenia bosporana ( Verhoeff, 1941) from Anatolia; Stenotaenia giljarovi ( Folkmanova, 1956) from western Caucasus; Stenotaenia fimbriata ( Verhoeff, 1934) and Stenotaenia palaestina ( Verhoeff, 1925) from Palestine; with the only exception of S. linearis, all of these binomens are comb. nov. In Stenotaenia, a strongly conserved overall morphology is matched by an unusual interspecific variation in both the body size of fully grown specimens ( from 1.7 cm in S. romana to 7.7 cm in S. sturanyi) and the number of leg-bearing segments ( from 43 in male S. romana to 115 in female S. sturanyi). The number of segments correlates with maximum body size. (c) 2008 The Linnean Society of London.