Two new species of stone centipedes found hiding in larch forests in China

Date:

March 7, 2018

Source:

Pensoft Publishers

Summary:

Scientists described two species of previously unknown stone centipedes from China. Now housed at the Hengshui University, China, the studied specimens were all collected in the leaf litter or under rocks in larch forests.

This is the new stone centipede species Lithobius (Ezembius) tetraspinus.

Credit: Dr Huiqin Ma CC-BY 4.0

Scientists described two species of previously unknown stone centipedes from China. Now housed at the Hengshui University, China, where all members of the team work, the studied specimens were all collected in the leaf litter or under rocks in larch forests.read more

Having conducted their research across China, researchers Dr Sujian Pei, Yanmin Lu, Haipeng Liu, Dr Xiaojie Hou and Dr Huiqin Ma announced the two new species -- Lithobius (Ezembius) tetraspinus and Hessebius luculentus -- in two articles published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Stone centipedes are the species which belong to the order Lithobiomorpha. These centipedes are anamorphic, meaning that they grow additional pair of legs as they moult and develop additional body segments. By the time they are fully grown, these count 15 in total. Unlike earlier predecessors, stone centipedes d