The contribution of preoral chamber and foregut morphology to the phylogenetics of Scolopendromorpha (Chilopoda)

Abstract

Recent morphology-based cladistic analyses of Scolopendromorpha have contributed suites of characters from the epipharynx and hypopharynx (peristomatic structures) and the foregut/gizzard that have been analysed together with traditional characters. Cladistic relationships in the Scolopocryptopidae and Scolopendridae and their implications for deep branchings in Scolopendromorpha as a whole are appraised in light of a new analysis of 84 morphological characters that adds and illustrates taxa not available for previous studies, notably the Neotropical scolopocryptopid Tidops Chamberlin, 1915, and the Australian scolopendrid Notiasemus Koch, 1985. Analysis with implied weights resolves the basal nodes of Scolopendridae in a pattern compatible with the traditional classification of Attems, including Edentistoma [Arrhabdotini] as sister to Otostigmini, and Asanadini as sister to Notiasemus + Scolopendrini; Plutoniuminae is sister to a 23-segmented scolopocryptopid clade. With equal character weights, the monophyly or paraphyly of blind Scolopendromorpha (Cryptopidae and Scolopocryptopidae) have equal cost, and a basal position of Arrhabdotini in the Scolopendridae emerges as an alternative.