''Geophilus richardi'' is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
of
soil centipede
Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an a ...
in the family
Geophilidae
The Geophilidae are a polyphyletic, cosmopolitan family of soil centipedes in the superfamily Geophiloidea containing the mostly defunct clades Aphilodontidae, Dignathodontidae, Linotaeniidae, Chilenophilinae, and Macronicophilidae. Species ...
found in France, Italy, and the
Ionian Islands. Females of this species have 33 pairs of legs; males have 29 or 31.
This species is one of only two in the family Geophilidae to include centipedes with as few as 29 leg pairs.
This species grows up to 10 millimeters long, has no carpophagus pit or pore-fields, and has a gradually tapering, curved
pretarsus of the second maxillae. ''G. richardi'' lacks typical ventral pores between 2–4mm. The sternites instead bear a small number of pores between 0.5–1mm that differ from micropores, which are unbounded by a cuticular ring. These are possibly the remnants of typical ventral pores, their smaller size being a byproduct of overall miniaturization.
References
Geophilomorpha
Myriapods of Europe
Animals described in the 20th century
{{Myriapoda-stub