Contribució al coneixement d'algunes subespècies de "Lithobius pilicornis" Newport "(Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha)"

Resum

In his fauna of France, Brolemann (1930) gave a complete description of Lithobius pilicornis including the characteristics that permited to distinguish the subspecies L. pilicornis doriae and L. pilicornis hexodus. These differential characteristics were the projections of the posterior angles of tergites 9, 11 and 13, the number of antennary articles and the number of teeth of the forcipular coxosternite.
The works of subsequent authors, such as Eason (1964, 1972, 1973) and Matic (1959, 1968), began to demonstrate that those characteristics were very variable and that it was not possible to decide if an individual would belong to the typical form or to the subspecies doriae.
The study of a large number of specimens (210 h h and 178 d d, collected in 57 localities of a total of more than 400 prospected in the Iberian Peninsula) has permitted us to make evident the variability of -those characteristics used by Brolemann and for that reason we think that L. pilicornis doriae should be disregarded. Concerning L. Pilicornis hexodus, owing to the lack of specimens, we prefer not to give an opinion for the moment.
In the second part of the work, we describe a new subspecies, Lithobius pilicornis luridus ssp.nov., which comes from the caves of Guipúzcoa and Navarra (northern Spain), and show the existence of an ecological separation with the typical form and for that reason they can be considered as allopatric. The principal characteristics which distinguish the new subspecies from the typical form are the following: reduced ocellary area; small and unpigmented ocelli, in number of 3 to 9, which are arranged in two irregular rows. Organ of Tomosvary quite big, bigger than the biggest of the ocelli. Antennae long, with the articles much longer than broad. Slender shape, with narrow and elongated tergites.