Phylogeny of Lithobiidae Newport, 1844, with emphasis on the megadiverse genus Lithobius Leach, 1814 (Myriapoda, Chilopoda).

Phylogenetic analyses based on molecular and morphological data were conducted to shed light on relationships within the mostly Palaearctic/Oriental centipede family Lithobiidae, with a particular focus on the Palaearctic genus Lithobius Leach, 1814 (Lithobiidae, Lithobiomorpha), which contains >500 species and subspecies. Previous studies based on morphological data resolved Lithobius as nonmonophyletic, but molecular-based phylogenetic analyses have until now sampled few species. To elucidate species inter-relationships of the genus, test the validity of its classification into subgenera, and infer its relationships with other Lithobiidae, we obtained molecular data (nuclear markers: 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA; mitochondrial markers: 16S rRNA, COI) and 61 morphological characters for 44 species of Lithobius representing four of its eight subgenera and nine other representatives of Lithobiidae. The data were analyzed phylogenetically using maximum-likelihood, parsimony and Bayesian inference. This study suggests that (i) a close relationship between L. giganteus and the pterygotergine Disphaerobius loricatus highlighted in recent morphological analyses is also strongly supported by molecular data, and Pterygoterginae is formally synonymized with Lithobiinae; (ii) the Oriental/Australian genus Australobius is consistently resolved as sister group to all other sampled Lithobiidae by the molecular and combined data; (iii) the subfamily Ethopolyinae may be paraphyletic; (iv) the genus Lithobius is nonmonophyletic; (v) the subgenera Lithobius, Sigibius and Monotarsobius are nonmonophyletic and should not be used in future taxonomic studies; and (vi) there are instances of cryptic species and cases in which subspecies should be elevated to full species status, as identified for some European taxa within Lithobius.

An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg.

Centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) are carnivorous arthropods that live in leaf litter and soil habitats on all continents except Antarctica. Roughly 3,300 species have been described to date but the taxonomy is still progressing and requires a thorough documentation of type material and type deposits. In this paper we provide an annotated catalogue of the centipede type collection at the Zoological Museum (ZMH) in Hamburg. This collection comprises 490 type specimens belonging to 141 taxa originally described as species, subspecies and varieties. More than half of these taxa were described by the pioneering myriapodologists Carl Graf Attems (Vienna) and Karl Kraepelin (Hamburg). The collection includes material representing 93 valid species or subspecies and contains specimens predominantly from Australia (33%), Asia (22%), Africa (20%) and South America (20%). Taxonomically, the focus is on the centipede orders Scolopendromorpha (56 valid species) and Geophilomorpha (28 valid species) with fewer types for the Lithobiomorpha (8 species). A total of 48 taxa (34% of type species) have been synonymized since they were originally described and the type material for 12 additional species at the ZMH is lost. We provide a brief historical overview of this collection from its origin at the Museum Godeffroy and the Johanneum in Hamburg, including the most relevant taxonomists and collectors, followed by an annotated taxonomic catalogue with details on all species that are or were represented by type material.

Phylogenetic analyses suggest centipede venom arsenals were repeatedly stocked by horizontal gene transfer.

Venoms have evolved over a hundred times in animals. Venom toxins are thought to evolve mostly by recruitment of endogenous proteins with physiological functions. Here we report phylogenetic analyses of venom proteome-annotated venom gland transcriptome data, assisted by genomic analyses, to show that centipede venoms have recruited at least five gene families from bacterial and fungal donors, involving at least eight horizontal gene transfer events. These results establish centipedes as currently the only known animals with venoms used in predation and defence that contain multiple gene families derived from horizontal gene transfer. The results also provide the first evidence for the implication of horizontal gene transfer in the evolutionary origin of venom in an animal lineage. Three of the bacterial gene families encode virulence factors, suggesting that horizontal gene transfer can provide a fast track channel for the evolution of novelty by the exaptation of bacterial weapons into animal venoms.