THE STERNAL PORE AREAS OF GEOPHILOMORPH CENTIPEDES (CHILOPODA, GEOPHILOMORPHA)

Most geophilomorph centipedes have segmental clusters of exocrine glan ds whose opening pores are arranged in more or less well-defined stern al pore areas. We describe here the cuticular structures forming and/o r accompanying the gland openings on the sternites and the shape of th e pore areas along the body axis in representatives of most geophilomo rph families. The cuticular ring around the pore may exhibit either of two forms. In Himantariidae (Himantarium) and in Dignathodontidae (He nia) the ring looks like a continuous ribbon with a visible suture, wh ereas in the representatives of the remaining families no suture is se en. As to the distribution of the pores on ventral surface of the body , we record the presence of pores on the last leg-bearing segment of C linopodes flavidus, whereas that segment was described as poreless in all geophilomorphs. We also provide a taxonomic survey of shape and di stribution of pore areas in the individual families, where the pore ar eas may take very different shapes that we regard as transformational homologues. As for the segmental distribution of sternal pore areas, t here is a considerable amount of complexity along the trunk of geophil omorph centipedes, in contrast to the apparently uniform trunk structu re. (C) 1995 The Linnean Society of London