Atlas of the Centipedes of Britain and Ireland

About this book

The Atlas of the Centipedes of Britain and Ireland covers all 55 species, including species only occurring in heated greenhouses and buildings. Also featuring are species best regarded as ‘doubtful’, as well as with chance introductions. Geographic coverage extends to all of Great Britain and Ireland, plus the Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

Centipedes (Arthropoda: Chilopoda) are widespread and common generalist carnivores. They occur in a wide variety of habitats, and at altitudes ranging from sea level to over 1000 metres. Some species are more or less confined to semi-natural habitats, including some seashore specialists. In contrast, others favour highly modified sites such as towns and gardens.

Like previous atlases in the series, species distribution maps show records at 10 km² resolution. Species maps have four date classes. Each species account describes status in Great Brtain, Ireland and elsewhere. There are also habitat, altitude and seasonal data for all species with more than 30 records.

Atlas data come from the Centipede Recording Scheme of the British Myriapod and Isopod Group. A special feature of this Recording Scheme is that habitat data have routinely been collected since 1971. As a result, there is now a rich resource of habitat data stretching back over 50 years, with over 15,000 individual records.

This new atlas is a comprehensive update to the 1988 provisional atlas. As well as using all pre-1988 and subsequent records up to the end of 2018. In total there are almost 50,000 records. This work also includes a review of habitat data for the three centipede orders: Geophilomorpha, Scolopendromorpha and Lithobiomorpha.

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