The current knowledge on centipedes (Chilopoda) in Slovenia: faunistic and ecological records from a national database

Abstract

In spite of Slovenia’s very high biodiversity, it has only a few animal groups that have been significantly investigated and are well known in this area. Slovenian researchers have studied only about half of the species known to be living in the country (Mršić 1997), but among well investigated species are centipedes. All available data about centipedes in Slovenia collected from 1921 to 2014 have been consolidated and constitute a general electronic database called “CHILOBIO”, which was created to provide an easy overview of the Slovenian centipede fauna and to allow entry and interpretation of new data collected in future research. The level of investigation has been studied with this database, in conjunction with a geographic information system (GIS). In the study period, 109 species were identified from 350 localities in 109 of the 236 UTM 10 × 10 km quadrants which cover the study area. The south-central part of the country has been the subject of the best investigations, whereas there is an absence of data from the south-eastern, eastern and north-eastern regions The highest number of species (52) has been recorded near the Iška valley (Central Slovenia, quadrant VL68). In 48% of the UTM quadrants investigated fewer than 10 species were recorded and just 5 species were found in one locality. Seventeen species were reported only in the Dinaric region, 4 in the Prealpine-subpannonian region and 7 in the Primorska-submediterranean region.