First record of the African-Indian centipede genus Digitipes Attems, 1930(Scolopendromorpha: Otostigminae) from Myanmar, and the systematicposition of a new species based on molecular phylogenetics.

Abstract

The first Southeast Asian record of the scolopendrid centipede Digitipes Attems, 1930, has been collected and analyzed based on a new species from Myanmar, males possessing a distomedial process on the ultimate leg femur that is diagnostic of the genus. Digitipes kalewaensis n. sp., described herein, is distinguished from other members of Digitipes by its 2.5 to 2.7 dorsally glabrous antennal articles, an unusually long basal suture on the tooth-plates, absence of a lateral spine on the coxopleural process, and a lack of median and dorso-median spines on the ultimate leg prefemur. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of two molecular markers (mitochondrial COI and 16S rRNA) supported the proposal of a new species from Myanmar. The phylogenetic tree identifies Digitipes barnabasi from the Western Ghats, India, in a polytomy with members of other genera of Otostigminae (Otostigmus, Ethmostigmus and Rhysida) and a robust Indian-Burmese Digitipes clade in which D. kalewaensis n. sp. is resolved as sister group to a clade composed of most Indian species. Available molecular dates for the diversification of Indian Digitipes are consistent with introduction of the genus into SE Asia when the Indian subcontinent made contact with Myanmar in the early Palaeogene.