Bulletin of the British Myriapod & Isopod Group Volume 32 (2020) Upland centipedes in North Wales with a review of the Welsh Chilopoda Anthony D. Barber1 and Richard Gallon2 1 7 Greenfield Drive, Ivybridge, Devon, PL21 0UG. Email:
[email protected] 2 23a Roumania Crescent, Llandudno, North Wales, LL30 1UP. Email:
[email protected] Abstract Since Eason’s (1957) paper on centipedes from Carnarvonshire there has been an accumulation of centipede records from various parts of Wales but relatively few are from upland areas. Recent records from Snowdonia included several species, including Lithobius (Monotarsobius) curtipes, from locations up to around 1,000m. We present a review of centipedes recorded from the 13 Welsh vice-counties which includes 41 species, 4 of which are from buildings or heated greenhouses, 4 apparently obligate halophiles from coastal sites and one doubtful. Wales has a variety of types of habitat including both lowland and montane rural areas and urban/industrial/post-industrial locations which no doubt contributes to the diversity of its chilopod fauna. Introduction The centipede Lithobius curtipes is not known in Britain from large numbers of past records, indeed in his Cotteswold paper of 1953, E.H. Eason (Eason, 1953) had referred to his record from Kildanes Scrubs, Gloucestershire in 1952 as only the third British record. The finding of it by RG at around 1,000m in Snowdonia, along with Lithobius variegatus and Strigamia acuminata at similar heights, prompted us to look at the occurrence of upland centipedes in North Wales and in Wales in general and to review the species recorded from the principality.