Arenophilus peregrinus | British Myriapod and Isopod Group

Status:

GB IUCN status: Data Deficient
GB rarity status: Nationally Rare

ID Difficulty

Identification

Arenophilus peregrinus is a very small pallid species (to 12 mm), always with 45 leg pairs, and the slender last leg pair terminating in a distinct ‘tubercle’.

More information to allow accurate identification is given in the published identification keys by Tony Barber (2008 & 2009).

Steve Gregory

Distribution and Habitat

Arenophilus peregrinus was described new to science from the Isles of Scilly by Jones (1989). It was subsequently found on the Cornish mainland where it is now known from two sites (Gregory & Jones, 1999; Barber, 2008, pg.3).

More recently this species was discovered in Portugal (Gregory & Lewis, 2015), the third global record, suggesting that it may have a widespread Atlantic distribution (and may have been overlooked in western France and Spain).

This account is based on the 'Centipede Atlas' (Barber, 2022).

References

Jones, R.E. (1989) On a new species of centipede (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha) from the Isles of Scilly. Journal of Natural History, 23: 627-633.

Gregory, S.J. & Jones, R.E. (1999) Arenophilus peregrinus in Cornwall: A centipede new to mainland Britain. Bulletin of the British Myriapod Group, 15: 28-29.