Gonopod segmentation and the Australian centipede Prionopodella (Chilopoda): testing a basal position in the Scutigeromorpha

Abstract

The monotypic centipede genus Prionopodella Verhoeff, 1925 has until now been known only from the types of its type species, collected in Queensland, Australia, nearly a century ago. The female gonopods of Prionopodella were described as having a uniquely tripartite structure, viewed as primitive relative to the bipartite gonopod of all other Scutigeromorpha. An articulation in the syntelopodite is present in one syntype, but new specimens from central eastern Queensland show an, at most, incompletely jointed or entirely unjointed syntelopodite, as in other scutigeromorphs. Cladistic analysis of morphological characters including Prionopodella and the likewise monotypic Australian genus Prothereua Verhoeff, 1925, shows Prionopodella to nest within Thereuoneminae, allied to other Asian/Australian genera, rather than in a basal position within Scutigeromorpha as is implied by Verhoeff's theory about primitive gonopod structure.

Keywords:

• centipedes
• Scutigeromorpha
• Prionopodella pectinigera
• Queensland
• phylogeny

Acknowledgements

Torbjörn Kronestedt kindly loaned Verhoeff's type material housed at Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm, and Owen Seeman (Queensland Museum) made the new material available for study. Suzanne Bullock prepared the line drawings in Figure 2. Alex Ball (The Natural History Museum) facilitated specimen preparation and SEM. I thank Sandro Minelli for focusing attention on pseudarthrosis.