Pincer-like claws in centipedes (Chilopoda): multiple evolutionary origin of similar form and serial pattern

Abstract

In most Chilopoda, the walking legs end in a single-tip claw usually accompanied by short accessory spines. Instead, in all species of three small and only distantly related geophilomorph taxa (Diphyonyx, Neogeophilidae, Eucratonyx), the claws of an anterior set of leg pairs are unusually pincer-like. By integrating different microscopic techniques, including confocal laser scanning microscopy, we found that these modified claws are very similar in form, internal structure, and pattern of variation in shape along the trunk in all three taxa: the claws are distinctly swollen and bent, provided with peculiar bulges, and flanked by a conspicuous additional branch, either cylindrical or flattened, which overreaches the tip of the claw; instead, the internal cuticular features are not modified with respect to the condition in the other centipedes, claiming against the possibility of controlled abduction/adduction between claw and branch. Irrespective of the total number of leg pairs (63–129), the claws change gradually from pincer-like to usual shape invariantly in the range spanning between the 34 and the 45% of the total number of leg pairs. Despite these similarities, pincer-like claws originated independently in the three taxa, and by way of fundamentally different changes, either by the dramatic modification of the already existent anterior accessory spine (Diphyonyx, Neogeophilidae) or by the production of a novel cuticular projection (Eucratonyx). Moreover, their shared pattern of variation along the body was most probably constrained by already operating developmental processes controlling the longitudinal patterning of the trunk.