Lithobius lapidicola Meinert, 1872
Synonyms
Lithobius (Lithobius) lapidicola Meinert, 1872
Status:
- GB IUCN status: Near Threatened
- GB rarity status: Nationally Rare
ID Difficulty
Identification
Lithobius is a difficult genus and at least 17 species are known from Britain and Ireland.
Lithobius lapidicola is one of seven 'smaller species' with 2 + 2 forcipular teeth that lack backward projections on tergites 9, 11 and 13 (though these may be feebly developed in some specimens). It is a small brown centipede (to 9 mm long), and perhaps most likely to be confused with the common L. microps (the latter characteristically has just three ommatidia on each side of the head; L. lapidicola has 7 to 11).
More information to allow accurate identification is given in the published identification keys by Tony Barber (2008 & 2009).
This is not the Lithobius lapidicola Latzel, 1880 of Eason's (1964) Centipedes of the British Isles (which is L. borealis Meinert, 1868)
Distribution and Habitat
Lithobius lapidicola is known from a handful of coastal sites in eastern Britain, but there are also widely scattered records from inside heated glasshouses in England, Wales and Scotland (Barber, 2011 ; Gregory & Lugg, 2020).
[The Cornish and western records on the NBN map (opposite) need to be verified. These may refer to L. borealis?]
This account is based on the 'Centipede Atlas' (Barber, 2022).
Links
ChiloBase 2.0 - World Catalogue of Centipedes: https://chilobase.biologia.unipd.it/searches/result_species/2039