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Specific Alaskan and Canadian localities are recorded for the chilopod Scolopocryptops sexspinosus (Say) (Cryptopidae), the only indigenous Nearctic scolopendromorph species occurring north of the lower 48 states. It occurs west of the crest of the Coast Range in British Columbia, extending northward to the southernmost islands of Alaska, and is recorded for the first time from eastern Canada, from Niagara Gorge, Ontario. Reports of S. rubiginosus Koch from southern Alaska are based on a misidentification of S. sexspinosus, and records from the north-central United States are too distant from the international border for it to be plausible for Manitoba and western Ontario. This centipede does not occur along the Pacific Coast and is improbable for any other part of Canada.
New records of the xystodesmid diplopod Stenodesmus tuobitus (Chamberlin) extend its range and those of the family and suborder Chelodesmidea into southwestern New Mexico, west of the Rio Grande. They confirm that it inhabits arid juniper environments at relatively low elevations as well as moist deciduous fir forests at high elevations, thereby lending credence to past records from the former habitat in Lincoln County. Discovery of the milliped in neighboring mountain ranges to the north and west is now likely, with the distant possibility that it may occur in eastern Arizona.
Two samples of the chordeumatidan family Rhiscosomididae (Rhiscosomides mineri Silvestri, 1909) and 35 of the Conotylidae establish these taxa in the Alexander Archipelago and continental parts of the Alaskan Panhandle, USA, and northern coastal British Columbia (BC), Canada. Rhiscosomides mineri is also recorded from southwestern BC and, for the first time, from Washington State, USA. Two conotylids were recovered, a juvenile male of ?Bollmanella Chamberlin, 1941, and 3 males and 33 females of a possibly parthenogenetic form of Taiyutyla Chamberlin, 1952, conforming generally to T. shawi and T. lupus, both by Shear, 2004, on Vancouver Island. Diplopoda are predicted to inhabit the southern Yukon Territory.
With documentation of an unidentifiable adult female and juvenile Tingupidae (Chordeumatida), Kodiak Island, Alaska, becomes the westernmost indigenous diplopod locality in North America including continental islands. The northernmost and most proximate locality, Yakutat, lies ca. 935 mi (1,496 km) to the eastnortheast, while Haines, the type locality of Tingupa tlingitorum Shear and Shelley, some 1,196 mi (1,914 km) in this direction, is the most proximate familial site. Kodiak is also one of the most remote indigenous milliped localities in the Pacific, the most proximate ones to the west and south, Kamchatka, Russia, and the Hawaiian Islands, United States, being over 3,300 mi (5, 280 km) distant. Tingupidae is recorded for the first time from Canada excluding the Queen Charlotte Islands, and geographically remote, ostensibly indigenous records from the North Pacific Ocean and environs are tabulated.
Hiltonius carpinus carpinus Chamberlin, 1943 (Spirobolida: Spirobolidae), is authoritatively recorded from the United States for the first time; it is known only from southern/southeastern Arizona but should be expected in adjoining counties of New Mexico. The northernmost locality is the Pinaleno Mountains, Graham County, and its distribution extends to southern Mexico; the other subspecies, H. c. vulcan (Chamberlin, 1953), occurs in Guatemala. The range of H. c. carpinus includes the type locality of the enigmatic H. fossulifer (Pocock, 1908), lending credence to prior suggestions that the names are synonymous. Three new Mexican states – Durango, Jalisco, and Nuevo León – are documented for H. c. carpinus.
The class Diplopoda, represented by the families Spirostreptidae (Spirostreptida) and Paradoxosomatidae (Polydesmida), is recorded from Saudi Arabia for the first time. Archispirostreptus transmarinus Hoffman, 1965 (Spirostreptidae) inhabits the Jabal Al-Hijaz Mountains in the southwest, and the Paradoxosomatidae, represented by an unidentifiable, indigenous female, occurs in a “wadi” in the center of the country. Other Middle Eastern familial records are documented, and occurrences in the Arabian Peninsula are mapped. Males, necessary to identify the paradoxosomatid, may be encountered if samplings are timed to coincide with seasonal rains.
Occurrence of the milliped Ergodesmus compactus Chamberlin in Canada (Polydesmida: Nearctodesmidae)
(1995)
Recent collecting in southcentral British Columbia, near the International Border, has confirmed the Canadian occurrence of the milliped Ergodesmus compactus Chamberlin, which was predicted by field work in the adjacent part of the United States. With Nearctodesmus insulanus (Chamberlin) occupying the Shuswap Highlands and the Pacific Coastal region, the Nearctodesmidae is known from three separate regions of Canada, all in British Columbia. Other millipeds in the northwestern United States that may be reasonably anticipated in western Canada are discussed.
Tiphallus torreon n. sp., the fi rst rhachodesmid milliped from Coahuila, Mexico, displays an iridescent turquoise pigmentation with patterned white paranotal markings and a truncated, subapical projection from the broad, non-descript gonopodal acropodite. Four genera – Strongylodesmus Saussure, Mexidesmus Loomis, and Ceuthauxus and Tiphallus, both by Chamberlin – contain forms exhibiting this general condition, but the last is the only one whose type species does. Synthetic treatments are essential to advance familial knowledge beyond the descriptive stage, and revising these four taxa would constitute a meaningful initial study. Rhachodesmidae extend from northern Nuevo León, Mexico, ca. 77 km (48 mi) from the Rio Grande, to central Costa Rica; Glomeridae (Glomerida), Platydesmidae (Platydesmida), and Stemmiulidae (Stemmiulida) show similar distributions whereas Allopocockiidae (Spirobolida) and Rhysodesmus Cook (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae) traverse the river and occupy southernmost Texas. Tridontomidae, the other component of Rhachodesmoidea, occupies a small enclave in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Rhachodesmidae/oidea do not occur in Panama and are initially recorded from Belize; localities are needed from Honduras.
With an incident in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, USA, Scolopendra heros Girard (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae) becomes the third centipede species known to prey on bats; S. gigantea Linnaeus and S. viridicornis Newport have been so documented in Venezuela and Brazil, respectively. The Texas predation was interrupted by the predator/prey pair’s falling around 15–20 m from the canyon wall and, perhaps also, by human presence where they landed. The centipede uncoiled and retreated to shelter under a nearby rock and, after initial immobilization, so did the bat.