Algerophilus, a neglected lineage of Western Mediterranean centipedes (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha)

Amidst the diverse geophilomorph centipedes inhabiting the Mediterranean region, we recognise and describe a morphologically well-distinct lineage that has long been misunderstood and neglected up to now. This lineage, which deserves to be treated as a distinct genus (Algerophilus Brolemann, 1925), is broadly similar to Geophilus Leach, 1814 and Tuoba Chamberlin, 1920, but differs from them mainly for the more elongate head and forcipular segment, and the coxal pores clustered into elongated pouches. All published and new records are from Western Mediterranean regions including the Baetic Mountains, Ibiza, the Atlantic Moroccan coastal plain, and the Tell Atlas. A single species A. hispanicus (Meinert, 1870) (= Nesogeophilus mateui Machado, 1953, syn. n.) is recognised on morphological characters, but some geographical variation has been detected in the relative elongation of antennae and forcipules and in the number of trunk segments. The evolutionary distinctness and geographical distribution highlighted here for Algerophilus mirror those of other divergent lineages of soil arthropods that are exclusive of the Western Mediterranean regions.