On the scolopendromorph centipede genus Mimops Kraepelin, 1903, with a description of a new family (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha)

The type material of the Chinese species Mimops orientalis Kraepelin, 1903 and Brazilian Mimops occidentalis Chamberlin, 1914 has been examined. Mimops orientalis is not a cryptopid. It is here placed in a new family Mimopidae characterized by the possession of a single ocellus on each side of the head plate, forcipular coxosternal plates without teeth, 21 pairs of legs and the ultimate leg‐bearing segment and ultimate legs with numerous small spines. The two syntypes of M. occidentalis are an early adolescens stadium of a scolopendrid, too immature for the genus to be determined.


Introduction
placed all scolopendromorphs in a single family Scolopendridae with three subfamilies, the Scolopendrinae and Otostigminae, with four ocelli on each side of the head plate, and the Cryptopinae, without ocelli. He placed his new genus Mimops with a single Chinese species M. orientalis (Kraepelin, 1903) in the Cryptopinae. A second species, Mimops occidentalis Chamberlin, 1914, was described from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Attems (1930) considered the Scolopendromorpha to consist of two families, the Scolopendridae with subfamilies Scolopendrinae and Otostigminae, and the Cryptopidae with subfamilies Cryptopinae, Theatopsinae (5 Plutoniuminae Bollman, 1893), and Scolopocryptopinae. He located Mimops in the Cryptopinae. It is obvious, however, from Kraepelin's (1903) description of M. orientalis and Chamberlin's (1914) description of M. occidentalis that the two Mimops species are quite unlike other cryptopines.
The type material of the two species is here redescribed. Mimops orientalis is placed in a new family Mimopidae. The two specimens of Mimops occidentalis are an early adolescens stadium of a scolopendrid.
The unidentified Chinese centipedes in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London were examined in the search for further material. There are 28 scolopendromorph specimens, none of which are Mimops.

Description of holotype
Length 45 mm. Head plate about as long as wide (Figure 1), very finely punctate with posterior margin overlying tergite 1. A single unpigmented ocellus (''weissen Augenfleck'', Kraepelin 1903). Left antenna damaged, right with 17 antennomeres. Antennomeres at most 1.5 times as long as wide, the basal six glabrous dorsally, the following ones appear to have lost many setae. Kraepelin (1903) stated that the basal seven antennomeres are glabrous, the following only setose laterally, almost glabrous dorsally and ventrally.
Clypeus partially obscured but without the transverse row of setae seen in Cryptops. Pretarsus (claw) of second maxilla pointed and without accessory spurs. Not hooked as in Cryptops.
Anterior margin of forcipular coxosternum, with a lenticular plate delimited by an oblique suture on each side ( Figure 2). The plates lack teeth but each has a prominent seta behind the anterior margin. Forcipular trochanteroprefemur with a low median lobe in the position of the median process or tooth of scolopendrids.
Tergite 1 with anterior transverse (ring) sulcus but no longitudinal sutures ( Figure 1). Tergites 2-20 with paramedian sutures. These are poorly developed on tergite 3. (Kraepelin stated that they are incomplete anteriorly on this tergite.) There are longitudinal  Each coxopleuron with an oval pore field of many small pores. Without setae but with small scattered spines. The coxopleural process digitiform and also covered with small spines (Figures 6, 7).
Ultimate legs (Figure 10), which are detached, have the prefemur and femur covered in very small spines, except for a median ventral strip (Figures 11, 12). The tibia spined on all but the median ventral and medial surfaces, and tarsus 1 has a few dorsomedial spines. Each spine is associated with a short seta.
The ventral pore-free strip of the prefemur, femur, and tibia of one terminal leg lies in a groove which is continued on to tarsus 1 as a shallow gutter. On the other leg the grooves are very shallow. Pretarsal accessory spurs are absent.
There are nine pairs of small round or oval spiracles (absent on segment 7). The spiracle cup filled with humps ( Figure 13), resembling those of the Otostigminae. The spiracles require further investigation. Chamberlin, 1914 (Figures 14-20) Mimops occidentalis Chamberlin 1914, p 160, Head plate as long as wide with sides converging posteriorly (Figure 14), slightly overlapping tergite 1. Chamberlin stated ''longitudinally depressed in caudal region each side of middle'' but this is not obvious. Ocelli absent.

Mimops occidentalis
Clypeus without setae, labrum with low median tooth. Telopodite of second maxilla with a rudimentary pretarsus (claw). A single seta on the inner surface of telopodite 3 behind the pretarsus.
Tergite 1 with indistinct anterior transverse (ring) suture. Chamberlin noted ''also with a longitudinal furrow each side of the middle extending cephalad from the caudal region and uniting at an angle with its fellow near the middle of the plate from where they continue as a single median furrow to the transverse sulcus''. These are not clear and their nature is doubtful. They may be bands of pigment.
Coxopleuron with short, digitate process bearing two minute spines ( Figure 18) and with numerous small pores which may be in the underlying new cuticle.
Legs 1-20 virtually glabrous, with divided tarsi and hooked pretarsus. The femora, tibiae, and tarsi 1 and 2 each with a small internal distal seta. Ultimate legs: one loose in tube with three nascent spines seen in profile on prefemur ( Figure 19).
Spiracles: only that of segment 3 visible. Viewed from the dorsal side this shows an upper and lower triangular flap (Figure 20).

Remarks
The small size, rounded trunk (seen in specimen 2), lack of sclerotization and only a few poorly developed spines and setae suggest that this is an early adolescens stage similar to that described by Lawrence (1947) for Cormocephalus multispinus (Kraepelin, 1903). The presence of coxosternal tooth plates, forcipular trochanteroprefemoral process, spined terminal leg prefemur, bisulcate sternites and divided tarsi, suggest that this is a scolopendrid rather than a cryptopid. The structure of the spiracle of segment 3 seen in specimen 1 is the same as that seen in the first free-living adolescens stadium of Scolopendra gigantea Linnaeus, 1758 (J. G. E. Lewis, unpublished data).
Presumably the absence of ocelli in these specimens prompted Chamberlin to look for relationships within the Cryptopidae. However, in all probability this early stadium was yet to develop ocelli. Lawrence (1947) noted that the ocelli in the first adolescens stadium of the scolopendrid Cormocephalus mutltispinus are represented merely by four reddish orange pigment spots under the ''skin''. No lenses could be distinguished.
It is concluded that the two syntypes of Mimops occidentalis are an early adolescens stadium of a scolopendrid, too immature for the genus to be determined with certainty. Table I compares the Scolopendridae, Scolopocryptopidae (reinstated as a family by Shelley 2002), and the cryptopid subfamilies Plutoniuminae and Cryptopinae with Mimops. Mimops shares most characters with scolopendrids and only one of those tabulated with cryptopines. It differs from the former, however, in having only one ocellus on each side of the head plate and in the presence of small spines on all legs, including the prefemur, tibia, and tarsus 1 of the penultimate and ultimate legs and trunk segment 21. Kraepelin (1903) called these ''Dornkö rnchen'' (literally thorn-or spine-granules). They are not the same as the tergite spinules ''Dornpü nktchen'', ''Dornstrichelung'' of some Otostigmus and Alipes species, or ''feinspitzig''. They are smaller than, but homologous with the spines (''Dornen'') of the ultimate leg prefemur and coxopleural process of other scolopendrids, and additionally present distodorsally on the prefmora of some posterior legs of many New World Scolopendra species and Scolopendra valida Lucas, 1840, from Africa and the Middle East.

Discussion
Mimops orientalis also differs from all scolopendrids in the untoothed forcipular coxosternal plates. The monotypic scolopendrid genus Arrhabdotus lacks coxosternal tooth plates.
As noted above, the spiracles resemble those of otostigmines and require further investigation.
Presumably Attems (1930) placed Mimops in the subfamily Cryptopinae of the Cryptopidae on the basis of its possessing 21 pairs of legs and supposed single ''Augenfleck''. In addition to Mimops he included Cryptops, Paracryptops, and Anethops in the subfamily, however, Schileyko and Pavlinov (1997), in a cladistic analysis, showed that although Cryptops and Paracryptops were closely linked, Anethops and Mimops occupied various positions in the cladograms and would have preferred to exclude them from the Cryptopinae. However, they made no suggestion as to the possible placement of these genera. Shelley (2002) showed that Anethops is a junior synonym of Scolopocryptops (Anethops occidentalis Chamberlin, 1902 5 Scolopocryptops gracilis Wood, 1862, family Scolopocryptopidae). This and the removal of Mimops to the Scolopendridae, render the Cryptopinae a very homogeneous taxon characterized as lacking ocelli, having 21 pediferous segments and cryptopiform ultimate legs.
Mimops is here placed in a new family Mimopidae defined above.