Age-related changes in antioxidant defenses of the Mediterranean centipede Scolopendra cingulata (Chilopoda).

The activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione reductase (GR), and glutathione S-transferase (GST), as well as the concentrations of sulfhydryl (SH) groups and glutathione (GSH) were analyzed in five age classes of the Mediterranean centipede Scolopendra cingulata as follows: embryo, adolescens, maturus junior, maturus, and maturus senior. The data obtained showed the presence of SOD, CAT, GSH-Px, GR, GST, and SH groups in embryos. The transition from embryo to adolescens was accompanied by an increase in the activities of all studied enzymes, in response to the increased production of ROS due to the increased metabolic activity of the centipede associated with growth and development. Our results show that trends in antioxidant enzyme (AOE) activities were not uniform among adult age classes, suggesting that maturus junior, maturus, and maturus senior differentially respond and/or have different susceptibility to ROS. On the other hand, GSH concentration in embryos was undetectable, highest in adolescens and decreased in the latter part of life. Pearson correlation analysis in embryos showed that the activities of the AOEs were strongly and positively correlated with each other but negatively correlated with GSH and SH groups. At later age classes, SOD, CAT, GSH-Px, GR, GSH, and SH groups were no longer significantly correlated with GST. In the discriminant analysis, the variables that separated the age classes were GR, GST, SH groups, and body length. Body length was directly related to the age of individuals, clearly indicating that development/aging affects the regulation of antioxidant defense in this species.

Presence of morphological integration and modularity of the forcipular apparatus in Lithobius melanops (Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha: Lithobiidae).

The presence of morphological integration and modularity of the forcipular apparatus, despite its evolutionary significance, has not been analyzed in centipedes. This morphological structure has a crucial role in feeding and defense, thanks to its poisonous part (forcipules), which is important for catching the prey. The aims of our study were: i) to test the hypothesis of modularity of the forcipular apparatus in centipede Lithobius melanops; and ii) to investigate the influence of allometry on overall morphological integration in the aforementioned species using a geometric morphometric approach. The presence of fluctuating asymmetry was obtained by Procrustes ANOVA. Allometry was significant only for the symmetric component of the forcipular apparatus. The modularity hypothesis was not accepted, because the covariance coefficients for symmetric and asymmetric components were lower than 89.5% and 72.1% (respectively) of other RV coefficients obtained by a random contiguous partition of the forcipular apparatus. Results of the present study indicate that allometry does increase the level of morphological integration in the forcipular apparatus. According to our results, the forcipular coxosternite and forcipules could not be considered as separate modules; namely, they probably share similar developmental pathways and function in different forms of behavior and survival in L. melanops.

Life after the mother's hug: Late post-embryonic development of Cryptops parisi (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Cryptopidae).

Here we describe in detail the late post-embryonic development of the common European scolopendromorph centipede Cryptops parisi. Canonical variate analyses of two groups of external morphological characters, viz., cephalic capsule characters (head length, length of the anterior and posterior paramedian cephalic sutures) and coxopleuron surface characters (number of pores in the coxal pore-field, number of setae on the posterior coxopleuron edge, their number on the coxal pore-field, and their number posterior to the coxal pore-field) were conducted on a large sample of specimens collected from two localities in Serbia. Ten free-living stages are recognized: three pre-adult stages (adolescens I, II, and III) and seven adult stages (one maturus junior stage, four maturus, and two maturus senior stages). The fourth late post-embryonic stage is the first mature stage in both sexes. Sexual dimorphism in the aforementioned characters was not observed. Morphological variation of coxopleuron characters was more informative for the discrimination of developmental stages in Cryptops than the morphological variation of cephalic capsule characters.

Geophilus serbicus sp. nov., a new species from the Balkan Peninsula (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha: Geophilidae).

Geophilus serbicus sp. nov., a new epigeic centipede species, is described and illustrated based on specimens collected from the Stara Planina Mountains (the Balkan Mountain Range), Eastern Serbia, Balkan Peninsula. Considerations on the taxonomic relationships with some similar Geophilus species are briefly presented, and the distribution of the new species is mapped.