Lithobius tricuspis Meinert, 1872
Status:
- GB IUCN status: Least Concern
- 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 tricuspis is one of five 'smaller species' with 2 + 2 forcipular teeth that have backward projections on tergites 9, 11 and 13 that can be confused with the common L. melanops. Females can usually be identified by the presence of 3+3 gonopod spurs, but this is not 100% reliable (see Barber & Owen, 2015 and Barber & Gregory, 2019).
More information to allow accurate identification is given in the published identification keys by Tony Barber (2008 & 2009).
Distribution
Lithobius tricuspis is widespread in south Devon, with scattered records in south Wales and a few isolated occurrences elsewhere, including the Channel Islands. It has not been recorded from Ireland.
Habitat
This is characteristically a woodland centipede, often found among leaf-litter, but also under stones and dead wood.
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/2657
BRC code
19
idBmigTaxa
Cen_173