A century later - a total evidence re-evaluation of the phylogeny of scutigeromorph centipedes (Myriapoda:Chilopoda)

Abstract

Scutigeromorpha (‘house centipedes’) play a pivotal role in myriapod systematics in being the sister group to all other chilopods, but their internal phylogeny has not been comprehensively appraised since K. W. Verhoeff’s morphological investigations a century ago. Relationships between the three families of Scutigeromorpha are inferred based on a combined analysis of approximately 5.5 Kb of sequence data from five molecular markers (complete 18S rRNA, a 2.2-Kb fragment of 28S rRNA, 16S rRNA, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, histone H3) and 33 ingroup morphological characters. Molecular data are available for 19 ingroup terminals representing 14 morphospecies that include the genera Scutigerina, Madagassophora (family Scutigerinidae), Sphendononema (family Pselliodidae), Scutigera, Thereuopoda, Thereuopodina, Thereuonema, Allothereua and Parascutigera (family Scutigeridae). Morphology resolves the southern African–Malagasy Scutigerinidae as sister to all other Scutigeromorpha, whereas rival sister-group relationships between the Neotropical–Afrotropical Pselliodidae and Scutigerinidae + Scutigeridae or Pselliodidae + Scutigerinidae and Scutigeridae are resolved by the molecular and combined analyses. Monophyly of Scutigeridae and Thereuoneminae are stable across a broad range of analytical parameters. Thereuoneminae is composed of two stable clades: an Allothereua + Parascutigera group, and a grouping of Thereuopoda, Thereuonema and Thereuopodina. Molecular and combined analyses resolve the genus Scutigerina and the morphospecies Scutigerina weberi as paraphyletic, in both cases with a Malagasy clade excluding populations from southern Africa.