[Bestimmt] Theatops californiensis

[Wacko]

A friend of mine just came back from California and brought me this little bugger.
It's 4-5cm long but it doesn't look like a pedeling, more juvenile or even fullgrown.
Can you help me with the idenitification? My apologies for the bad quality pictures, the animal is quite fast and hard to photograph. Ever since I put it inside its new home, it's been digging and living underground.
I have a guess that it is Theatops sp., maybe Theatops posticus, but I'm not sure at all. Any help is welcome.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2384/1000208c.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7144/1000213p.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1643/1000216t.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1932/1000217lcm.jpg

[peterbourbon]

Hi,

yes, i think it's Theatops posticus.
Very nice one - congrats!

Regards,
Turgut

[Wacko]

Hm, after reading some articles, Theatops posticus is mostly spread in the South-East of the USA, and not very common in California. This makes me have some doubts again...
Maybe Theatops californiensis is an option as well, but there is very little info to be found about that one...

[peterbourbon]

Hey,

you are right - maybe it's californiensis, but look at the most recent distribution maps of R. Shelley:

T. posticus:
http://www.naturalsciences.org/images/research-collections/T_posticus.gif

T. californiensis
http://www.naturalsciences.org/images/research-collections/T_californiensis.gif

Depends on where your friend has collected the centipede - If he was in Southern California, border to Texas) it still may be T. posticus.

I only have the description of T. posticus here (in German language), maybe we can then either exclude T. posticus or not (i try to translate):
Length up to 36mm. Orange-yellow. Head punctated, with or without 2 faint paramedian sulci at the back margin. 2nd or 3rd up to 20th tergite with with 2 paramedian sulci, not marginated, but punctated.
21st tergite with median sulcus, marginated, abrasively punctated. Sternites with a groove-like extended median sulcus in the middle (starting from 2nd sternite), punctated. Last sternite slender, noticably narrowed with median depression. Coxosternal toothplates elongated, with 3 small teeth on each side. Coxopleurons barely bulged in the median region, without spines at the end. Prefemur, femur and tibia of terminal legs medially flattened, the upper and lower margin sharp-edged, but not serrated. Prefemur without prefemoral process and ventral spines, femur without spines as well. Claw of terminal legs as long as both tarsi together, without spurs. 1st up to 19th legs with a ventral spines on tibia, one tarsal spine and 2 claw spines. 20th legs with 2 claw spines.

Hope it helps a little bit.

Regards,
Turgut

[Wacko]

The centipede was found in Yosemite Park.

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/yosemite-national-park-ga-map.jpg

Thanks to Steven Leanaerts I've been checking out the ventral view of the ultimate legs, but it's very hard to make sure as the differences are minor. I only have a simple digital camera which is giving me a very hard time zooming in on the centipede!

[peterbourbon]

Hey,

as i see now in the paper excerpt, the differences are not really minor: If it features ventral spines on the terminal legs (and even coxopleural process) the it's T. californiensis - pretty obvious feature. Good luck. :)

Regards
Turgut

[Wacko]

It seems pretty obvious on the pictures but it's hard to find out in real with such a small and fast centipede![imo ;-) ].