Schendylidae is a paraphyletic (with respect to

Ballophilidae Ballophilidae is a monophyletic family of centipedes belonging to the order Geophilomorpha and superfamily Himantarioidea Himantarioidea is a monophyletic superfamily of soil centipedes in the suborder Adesmata containing the families Oryidae ...

) family 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 ...

s 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 withstan ...

and superfamily Himantarioidea. There are at least 47 genera and 310 described species in Schendylidae. Compared to most other families in the suborder Adesmata, this family features a modest number of leg-bearing segments (no more than 87) and limited variation in this number within each species (usually no more than three or four contiguous odd numbers). This family includes the two species with the fewest legs (27 pairs) in the order Geophilomorpha: males in the species ''Schendylops ramirezi'' have only 27 pairs of legs, while females have 29, and males in the species ''S. oligopus'' have 27 or 29 (usually 29), while females have 31. The genus ''Schendylops'' spans an exceptionally broad range, including other species with notably few legs (e.g., ''S. perditus'', with 35 pairs in males and 37 in females) and others with more (e.g., ''S. inquilinus'', with 51 or 53 pairs in males, usually 53, and 53 or 55 in females, usually 55), all the way up to 87 pairs (in ''S. caledonica'', with 83 pairs in males and 83 to 87 in females), the maximum number in this family.

Genera

References

Further reading