''Schendyla antici'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

soil centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an a ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Schendylidae Schendylidae is a paraphyletic (with respect to Ballophilidae) family of soil centipedes in the order Geophilomorpha The centipedes or Chilopoda are divided into the following orders. Scutigeromorpha The Scutigeromorpha are anamorphic, reachi ...

. This species is notable as one of only six species in the order

Geophilomorpha The centipedes or Chilopoda are divided into the following orders. Scutigeromorpha The Scutigeromorpha are anamorphic, reaching 15 leg-bearing segments in length. Also known as house centipedes, they are very fast creatures, and able to withstand ...

to feature

centipedes Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...

with only 29 pairs of legs, which is also the minimum number recorded in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

Schendyla ''Schendyla'' is a genus of soil centipedes in the family Schendylidae. These centipedes are found in the west Palearctic region. This genus was described by Danish entomologists Vilhelm Bergsøe and Frederik Vilhelm August Meinert in 1866. Thi ...

''. No other species in this genus features so few legs.

Discovery

This species was first described by three

biologists A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...

from the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac- ...

( Dalibor Z Stojanović, Mirko Ševićin, and Slobodan E Makarov) in 2024, based on specimens extracted from soil samples from

Medvednik Medvednik (Serbian Cyrillic: Медведник) is a mountain in western Serbia, near the town of Valjevo Valjevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Ваљево, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Kolubara District in western Serbia. According to ...

mountain in western

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

. These specimens include not only a male

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

collected in 2011 and fourteen

paratypes In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). O ...

(five males and nine females) collected in 2021 but also seven more specimens (two males, five females, and three

juvenile Juvenile may refer to: *Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood *Juvenile (organism) *Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper * ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film * ''Juvenile'' (2017 film) *Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...

females) collected in 2023. The specific name of ''S. antici'' honors the Serbian myriapodologiist

Dragan Antić Dragan (, sr-Cyrl, Драган) is a popular Serbo-Croatian masculine given name derived from the common Slavic element ''drag'' meaning "dear, beloved". The feminine form is Dragana. People named Dragan include: Politicians and office holder ...

, who discovered the first specimen and participated in the collection of most of the others.

Description

This species exhibits

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...

in leg number: All eight male specimens have 29 pairs of legs, and all seventeen female specimens have 31 leg pairs. This species is whitish with a pale yellowish color on parts of the head, antennae, mouthparts, forcipular segment, and claws of the walking legs. The adult specimens range from 4.5 mm to 8.0 mm in length, and the juvenile female specimens measure about 4 mm long. The adult females (with an average length of 6.5 mm) tend to be larger than the adult males (with an average length of 5.8 mm long). These centipedes are so small that the original description refers to ''S. antici'' as a "dwarf" species. Diagnostic features of this species include not only its small size and modest number of legs but also a distinctive set of other traits. These traits include minute denticles on the first article of the

forcipule Forcipules are the modified, pincer-like, front legs of centipedes that are used to inject venom into prey. They are the only known examples of front legs acting as venom injectors. Nomenclature Forcipules go by a variety of names in both scien ...

, a rudimentary claw on the

ultimate legs Ultimate legs are a pair of modified rear legs unique to centipedes. Although they do not aid in locomotion, ultimate legs are used for a variety of uses, and their morphology varies accordingly. Sexual dimorphism is frequently present. Usage ...

, and the absence of ventral pore-fields on the

sternites The sternum (pl. "sterna") is the ventral portion of a segment of an arthropod thorax or abdomen. In insects, the sterna are usually single, large sclerites, and external. However, they can sometimes be divided in two or more, in which case the ...

. These features distinguish ''S. antici'' from other species of the genus ''Schendyla''. For example, only three species in this genus approach ''S. antici'' in terms of leg number: ''S. verneri'' (with 31 pairs of legs), ''S. walachica'' (with 33 or 35 leg pairs in each sex), and ''S. armata'' (with as few as 33 pairs in females and 35 in males). The species ''S. verneri'' is small (9 mm to 10 mm in length) and has small denticles on the first article of the forcipule but also has some scattered pores on the anterior sternites and no claws on the ultimate legs. The species ''S. walachica'' has rudimentary claws on its ultimate legs but also features pore-fields on some sternites, has no denticles on the first article of the forcipule, and is twice as long as ''S. antici''. Finally, ''S. armata'' is small (5 mm to 11 mm in length) and has rudimentary claws on its ultimate legs and no sternal pore-fields but also features denticles on the first article of the forcipule that are distinctly robust rather than small.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q125700435 antici Myriapods of Europe Animals described in 2024 Endemic fauna of Serbia