A troglomorphic species of the centipede Cryptops (Trigonocryptops) (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha) from Western Australia

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 8 years ago

ABSTRACT – Among the 152 named species of the cosmopolitan centipede genus Cryptops Leach, 1815, a few troglomorphic species have been described from caves in Europe, the Canary Islands, and Cuba. Caves in the Roe Plains in the Nullarbor Region of Western Australia have yielded a new troglomorphic species, C. (Trigonocryptops) roeplainsensis sp. nov. The subgenus Trigonocryptops, known from Spain, North Africa, tropical West, Central and East Africa, Peru, Brazil, Cuba, India, Indonesia, and New Caledonia, has not previously been identified in Australia. Among Australian species, Cryptops spinipes Pocock, 1891, is most similar to C. roeplainsensis, is likewise a member of C. (Trigonocryptops), and provides records for this subgenus in New Zealand, the Solomons and Fiji.