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Biogeographia vol. XXVIII- 2007
(Pubblicato il 30 dicembre 2007)
Biogeografia dell'Appennino centrale e settentrionale:
trent'anni dopo

Faunistic and zoogeographic aspects of centrai

Apennines centipede fauna (Chilopoda)

MARZIO ZAPP ARO LI
Dipartimento di Protezione delle Piante, Università degli Studi della Tuscia,
via San Camillo de Lellis s. n.e., 01100 Viterbo (Italy);
e-mail· zapparol@unitus. it

Key words: Chilopoda, zoogeography, faunisric, centrai Apennines, ltaly

SUMMARY

Sixry-seven species of centipedes (l Scutigeromorpha, 31 Lirhobiomorpha, 8 Scolopendromorpha, 27
Geophilomorpha) bave been recorded in rhe area of peninsular Italy between the valleys of Ombrone and Foglia
Rivers to the north an d Volturno and Fortore Rivers to rhe south (Apenninic and Anri-Apenninic limestone ranges,
hilly and fladands areas along the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic coasrs: nearly 52,700 km' wide). This number is equa! ro
about the 42% of the rotai centipede species recorded in Italy (160) and ro about the 14% of those present in Europe
(486). The species recorded, apart from those excluded because of uncenain taxonomic identity (3 species) or
introduced (2 species), belong to the following main chorotypes (pattern of distribution) of rhe western Palearctic
fauna: chorotypes of species widely spread in the Holoarctic Region (4: W-Palearctic, l species; Sibero-European, l
species; Centralasiatic-European, l species; Turano-European, l species), 6.5%; chororypes of species more or less
widely spread in Europe (26: European, 8 species; Centraleuropean, 7 species; S-European, IO species; W-European,
l species), 41.9%; chorotypes of species more or less widely spread in the Mediterranean countries (16: Mediterranean,
l O species; W-Mediterranean, 5 species; E-Medirerranean, l species), 25.8%; endemics (16: Italian, l species; Alpino-
Apenninic, 2 species; W-Alpino-Apenninic, l species; Apenninic, Il species; Tyrrhenian, l species), 25.8%. The
Mediterranean geophilomorph centipede Scbendyla armata (Briilemann, 1901), previously known in Italy from
Sardinia and Tuscany, was recorded for the fìrst rime in centrai Italy.

INTRODUCTION

The centrai Apennines is one of the more explored and better studied areas
in Itaiy from fa unisti c and zoogeographic points of view (Ruffo, 1957; AA.VV.,
1971; Vigna Taglianti, 1980; Ruffo and Vigna Taglianti, 1988; Ruffo and Stoch,
2006). However, there has been insufficient research focused in this region about
centipedes, a group of terrestriai arthropods of reliable faunistic, biogeographic
an d ecologicai interest (Zapparoli an d Minelli, 2006). Only recently a cataiogue
of the species has been published (Zapparoli, 2006a) in which, besides offering
a criticai synthesis of the published information, is reported a conspicuous num-
ber of unpublished faunistic records. This cataiogue, together with some recent