Early development of the centipede Geophilus serbicus (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha: Geophilidae) from the Balkan Peninsula

ABSTRACT

The first detailed description of early development of the recently described European geophilid Geophilus serbicus is presented. Based on specimens from a natural population from the Balkan Peninsula, new insight was gained into the reproductive and developmental biology of the group. Changes in the morphology of brooded specimens allow 15 early developmental stages obligatorily dependent on prolonged maternal care, arranged in three phases (embryonic, embryoid, and adolescent) to be distinguished. The embryonic phase includes eight stages, followed by an intermediate stage of hatching, followed in turn by five embryoid stages and one adolescens stage. Detailed morphological descriptions of all stages are provided. Adolescens I is recognized as the first stage at which species and sex identification are possible. Besides the description of the earliest stages, we provide notes on reproductive behaviour and ecological features of the species.

KEYWORDS:

• Embryonic development
• embryoid development
• postembryonic development
• parental care
• Serbia

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (Grant 173038). We are grateful to Prof Dr Mladen Kučinić from the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb (Croatia); and to Prof Dr Miroslav Živić and Dr Katarina Stojanović from the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade (Serbia). As a result of their investigations of the caddisfly, this locality was discovered to be a promising place for myriapodological studies. Many thanks to friends and colleagues of ours who helped us during the field collecting of broods, namely: Ivan Stojanović, Igor Stojanović, Dr Jelena Petrović, Dr Anđeljko Petrović, and Nikola Zukanović. We also wish to thank Dule Mihajlović (Temska) for his hospitality, and Nevena Vuković for assistance in material processing. The authors highly appreciate comments of two annonymous reviewers, as well as comments of the editor Prof Dr Alan Hodgson (Grahamstown, South Africa). Finally, the authors would like to thank Raymond Dooley, who kindly edited the English of an advanced draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology [173038].