OCCURRENCE OF THE MILLIPED GENUS SCYTONOTUSC. L. KOCH, 1847 (POLYDESMIDA: POLYDESMIDAE)IN ALBERTA, CANADA

Abstract

The milliped genus Scytonotus C. L. Koch, 1847, occupies four areas of North America, one east of the Central Plains and three west of the Continental Divide (one coastal and two in the interior) (Shelley 1993, Hoffman 1999, Shelley et al., 2005). The western coastal area extends along the Pacific from Yakutat Bay, Alaska, to Marin and San Joaquin counties, California, including all intervening offshore islands except the Queen Charlottes, British Columbia (BC). One interior area encompasses the Wasatch and Teton mountains, and associated ranges, in western Wyoming, eastern Idaho, and northern Utah, and the other centers on the Columbia River Valley and the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains from Revelstoke and Yoho National Parks, BC, to southeastern Washington, northern Idaho, and western Montana (Kevan 1983; Shelley 1990, 1993, 2002). Three species inhabit the last area, but only S. columbianus Chamberlin, 1920, occurs in BC, where it extends northward to the vicinity of Takkakaw Falls in Yoho. While recently perusing samples in the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH), Martinsville, I discovered one with three unidentifiable females of Scytonotus from “Sta. 2,” 4,000', Jasper National Park, Alberta, the first record of the genus from this Canadian province. The specimens were collected on 2-4 October 1964 by the late D. R. Whitehead, an experienced arthropod field collector, so there is no reason to suspect a labeling error; Jasper is also where he routinely collected beetles in the course of doctoral program at the University of Alberta. The precise location of “Sta. 2” is unknown, but Dr. Whitehead sampled extensively in the vicinity of Mt. Edith Cavell, some 144 km (90 mi) NNW of the site in Yoho. “Sta. 2” may not have been here, but the southern boundary of Jasper Park is ca. 88 km (55 mi) NNW of the Yoho locality, and the northward generic range extension is probably between these distances because the part of the Park north of Jasper village and highway 16 is largely roadless and inaccessible. Males are necessary for a specific determination, but considering the magnitude of this extension and the fact that the locality lies east of the Divide, a formidable distribution barrier that runs along the border between BC & Alberta, the species seems more likely to be undescribed than S. columbianus. Canadian biologists should be aware of the possibility of an undescribed milliped species in Jasper, and if true, it will be the second that is known only from the Park, the other being Austrotyla borealis Shear, 1971 (Chordeumatida: Conotylidae), whose holotype and only known specimen was collected by Dr. Whitehead in 1967 at “Sta. 5,” precise location also unknown (Shear 1971; Shelley 1990, 2002; Hoffman 1999). Volume 118, Number 3, May and June 2007 319