Scolopendra heros, Girard, 1853: 272 - 274

Shelley, Rowland M., 2006, A chronological catalog of the New World species of Scolopendra L., 1758 (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae), Zootaxa 1253 (1), pp. 1-50 : 14

heros Girard, 1853:272–274 (month and date unknown, therefore set at 31 December).

Neotype (NMNH); neotype locality: Mt. Scott , Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge , Comanche Co., Oklahoma, USA.

Original rank: species. Current rank and status: valid species ( Wood 1862, 1865; Kraepelin 1903; Attems 1930; Bücherl 1942 a, Shelley 2002).

Anatomical illustrations: Girard (1853, pl. 18, figs. 1–5), Kraepelin (1903, figs. 152–153), Attems (1930, fig. 60), Shelley (2002, figs. 27–41).

Distribution: Arkansas­Arizona, USA, southward at least to Nayarit, Mexico ( Shelley 2002). Map: Shelley (2002, fig. 43).

Remarks: The description is in Appendix F of the Report on Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana Expedition in 1852. Khanna (2001) stated that S. heros occurs in “South India,” but this is an obvious error because the species does not occur outside the aforementioned range; I therefore delete S. heros from India.