Discovery of a new genus of multi-legged, “alien-faced” forest dwellers

Researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast have discovered a new genus and five new species of centipede in remote African jungles and say the multi-legged creatures could hold important clues to whether woody vines smother or protect forests of the world.

UniSC’s Professor Andy Marshall said he found centipedes – with heads that look a bit like Star Wars characters – among forest waste and soft soil, while carrying out research into the growth trees and vines in the remote Udzungwa mountains of Tanzania.

The new genus and new species were officially described recently in the European Journal of Taxonomy in an article entitled “A mountain centipede University of Copenhagen.

“The centipedes will help us determine two very different theories about the role of vines in forest regeneration: are the vines like bandages protecting a wound or ‘parasitoids’ choking out the forest,” Marshall said.

“We record centipedes of all sizes during our field work to measure forest regeneration because they are excellent indicators of forest health, but we did not realize the importance of these species before myriapodologists evaluated our specimens,” Marshall added. “It is remarkable that so many of these new species did not appear in previous centipede collections from the same area, but we were still hoping for something new.”

Marshall and Ph.D. student Alain Ngute from the UniSC Forestry Research Institute discovered the new centipedes while conducting research in Tanzania as part of the Forest Restoration Experiment and climate change.

Recent findings, from a global research collaboration, suggest that warmer temperatures are a key factor in woody vines conquering forests already disturbed by logging and other impacts.

Known for their multitude of legs, the largest African centipedes can measure up to 35 centimeters.

Marshall, from the UniSC Forestry Research Institute, explained that although the centipedes found were only a few centimeters long, they still had around 200 legs each.

This is not the first time that Marshall has had the pleasure of discovering new species during his research; its previous discoveries include a new chameleon and new tree species that may already be on the verge of extinction. He said the discovery of new centipede genera and species highlighted the enormous amount of findings remaining in tropical forests.

Professor Enghoff and the team named one of the new species Lophostreptus magombera after the Magombera Nature Reserve, a biologically unique forest that Marshall has been working to conserve since the turn of the millennium.

The centipede specimens are now in the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen.

The new genus is Udzungwastreptus. The five new species are Lophostreptus magombera; Attemsostreptus cataractae; Attemsostreptus leptoptilos; Attemsostreptus julostriatus and Udzungwastreptus marianae.