Distribution and natural history of Plutonium zwierleini (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha) in Sicily (Italy)

Figures & data

Table I. Novel records of Plutonium zwierleini in Sicily. The acronyms reported in the reference column refer to author names. The detection rate, DR, was calculated as the number of findings/hours per researcher.

Code	Locality - Province	Date	Latitude N	Longitude E	Habitat	Elevation (m a.s.l.)	N.	MZUF	DR	Reference
1	Catania - Catania^§	Oct 2002	37.511	15.080	House inside urban area	49	1			A Marletta^+
2	Castelbuono - Palermo^§	20 Sep 2016	37.947	14.050	Rural house	290	1			M Paonita^+
3	Monte Pellegrino - Palermo^§	15 Oct 2016	38.170	13.352	Eucalypt reforestation	411	1			A Dentici^+
4	Castelvetrano - Trapani^§	18 May 2018–19 Feb 2023	37.692	12.760	Arable field margin	~110	6	380	0.17	AB, FPF, GS
5	Villafrati - Palermo	5 Jul 2018	37.910	13.488	Backyard in a suburban house	524	1			G Surdo*
6	Gravina di Catania - Catania^§	Nov 2018	37.552	15.071	House inside urban area	301	1			P Galasso^+
7	Catania - Catania	1 Apr 2019	37.511	15.087	Urban area	30	1			N Pavone*
8	Gravina di Catania - Catania	22 Jul 2019	37.551	15.073	Urban area	280	1			D Calabretta*
9	Mussomeli - Caltanissetta	21 Aug 2019	37.617	13.738	Backyard of a rural house	411	1			M Spoto*
10	Agrigento - Agrigento^§	20 Nov 2020	37.329	13.587	Rural house	219	1			J Wojtkow^+
11	Milo - Catania^§	7 Dec 2020	37.735	15.135	Hypogean habitat	480	1			GN
12	Monreale - Palermo	15 Mar 2021	38.082	13.293	House inside urban area	285	1			S Costa^+
13	Belpasso - Catania^§	23 Jun 2021, 21 Jul 2022	37.604	14.998	Hypogean habitat	615	1			GN
14	Cefalù - Palermo	22 Nov 2021	38.024	14.011	Backyard of a rural house	180	1			K Cespa*
15	Zafferana Etnea - Catania^§	18 Jan 2022	37.688	15.069	Hypogean habitat	1164	2			GN
16	Nicolosi - Catania^§	21 Jul 2022	37.630	15.036	Hypogean habitat	820	1			GN
17	Alimena - Palermo^§	30 Dec 2022	37.695	14.128	Pasture	844	1	379	0.50	FM, GG
18	Near Ficuzza - Palermo^§	1 Mar 2023, 13 Jun 2023	37.896	13.379	Oak wood margin	566	2	381	0.33	CM
19	Piana degli Albanesi - Palermo^§	12 Mar 2023, 26 Mar 2023	37.964	13.316	Pasture/Arable field margin	~726	2	382	0.50	FM, FPF, GG
20	Caccamo - Palermo^§	6 Apr 2023	37.950	13.649	Pasture	176	1	383	0.33	FM, FPF
21	Caccamo - Palermo^§	24 May 2023	37.915	13.619	Pine reforestation	180	1		0.50	FPF, LV

*Citizen science data; ⁺personal communications; ^§collected specimen; MZUF, catalog numbers of the specimens deposited at Zoology Section “La Specola,” Natural History Museum, University of Florence (Italy).

Figure 1. Occurrence localities of Plutonium zwierleini in Sicily. Black circles indicate novel sites where the centipede was directly observed by the authors; Black triangles report data from citizen science and personal communications; White diamonds represent bibliographic records of the species obtained from Bonato et al. (2017). See Table I for more information on the novel occurrence localities of the species.

Figure 2. Four of the Plutonium zwierleini individuals collected in the field and photographed in a controlled environment. (a) 44 mm total length from Castelvetrano (Trapani province, locality #4); (b) 63 mm total length from Piana degli Albanesi (Palermo province, locality #19); (c) 102 mm total length from Castelvetrano (Trapani province, locality #4); (d) 114 mm total length from Castelvetrano (Trapani province, locality #4).

Figure 3. Four of the Plutonium zwierleini habitat in Sicily. (a) Near Ficuzza, Monreale (Palermo province, locality #18); (b) Piana degli Albanesi (Palermo province, locality #19); (c) Caccamo (Palermo province, locality #20); (d) Alimena (Palermo province, locality #17).

Figure 4. (a) Predicted presence (green) and absence (grey) occurrence distribution from the “max_spec_sens” threshold evaluation model; (b) Precipitation seasonality variation (%) across the region. The 19 observations are marked with a cross in panel “A”.

Figure 5. Foraging in captive Plutonium zwierleini. (a) Staphylinidae larvae; (b) Lumbricidae; (c) Scolopendra cingulata; (d) Banana; (e) Gryllidae; (f) Raw chicken meat.

Bonato L, Orlando M, Zapparoli M, Fusco G, Bortolin F. 2017. New insights into Plutonium, one of the largest and least known European centipedes (Chilopoda): Distribution, evolution and morphology. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 180(4):887–909. DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlw026.

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Data availability statement

The data used for this work are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.