Lithobius tricuspis Meinert, 1872

Status:

  • GB IUCN status: Least Concern
  • GB rarity status: Nationally Rare

ID Difficulty

Identification

Lithobius is a difficult genus and at least 17 species are known from Britain and Ireland.

Lithobius tricuspis is one of five 'smaller species' with 2 + 2 forcipular teeth that have backward projections on tergites 9, 11 and 13 that can be confused with the common L. melanops. Females can usually be identified by the presence of 3+3 gonopod spurs, but this is not 100% reliable (see Barber & Owen, 2015 and Barber & Gregory, 2019).

More information to allow accurate identification is given in the published identification keys by Tony Barber (2008 & 2009).

Christian Owen
Christian Owen
Christian Owen

Distribution 

Lithobius tricuspis is widespread in south Devon, with scattered records in south Wales and a few isolated occurrences elsewhere, including the Channel Islands. It has not been recorded from Ireland. 

Habitat

This is characteristically a woodland centipede, often found among leaf-litter, but also under stones and dead wood. 

This account is based on the 'Centipede Atlas' (Barber, 2022).

BRC code

19

idBmigTaxa

Cen_173