The marine centipede Strigamia maritima was thought to be lost in Germany for almost 50 years – it was unclear whether this species still existed on the German North Sea coast. But now zoologists have tracked down the multi-legged animal in three places, including in Dagebüll on the Schleswig-Holstein North Sea coast and on Sylt. The finds confirm that these centipedes still exist here, but are extremely rare and threatened.
The centipede Strigamia maritima, which lives in seawater, is actually well known: the myriapod, which is up to five centimeters long, is found on almost the entire Atlantic coast of Europe from Spain to Norway. It is mainly found in the intertidal zone and prefers stony or gravel areas there. The centipede with 40 to 50 pairs of legs, on the other hand, avoids pure sand or muddy soil. Strigamia maritima was also the first myriapod to have the DNA sequence analyzed.
Last seen 50 years ago
“Especially in view of its wide distribution, it is surprising that Strigamia maritima in Germany has so far only been documented from the island of Helgoland,” report Jan Philip Oeyen from the Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum in Bonn and his colleagues. And even the find on Heligoland was made in 1967 and was therefore more than 50 years ago. Since then, this species has been considered lost in Germany. However, because the German Red List Center is preparing a new list of threatened centipedes, Oeyen and other experts sent them to search for the lost marine centipede this summer.
The soil animal expert Hans Reip from the Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz also took part in the manhunt and examined 35 sites on the North Sea coast in Schleswig-Holstein – on Sylt, Föhr, Amrum, Nordstrand, Pellworm and on the North Frisian mainland. As part of his research, Reip collected around 500 specimens of various centipedes and also found what they were looking for in relation to Strigamia maritima: He and his colleagues discovered the rare animal twice on the beach in Dagebüll and once under stones and rubble next to the pier in Rantum on the island of Sylt.
Found it in three places
“This find represents the first record of this species in Germany for more than 50 years and the very first find of this centipede on Sylt,” explain Oeyen and his colleagues. They suspect that Strigamia maritima only occurs in so few locations here, because most of the German North Sea coast is characterized by sandy beaches and mud flats – habitats that this centipede tends to avoid. The current rediscoveries were also all found in stony stretches of the coast. The researchers speculate that it was probably only on Sylt that human interventions and constructions provided the animal with the rubble it needed.
Thanks to the new finds, the long-lost sea centipede will soon be included in the new Red List of centipedes as an established, albeit extremely rare species in our country. In the course of the preparatory work for such a list, the Red List Center relies not only on the collection of available data and monitoring results but also on targeted searches. These targeted mappings are primarily carried out when certain species are considered extinct, missing, threatened with extinction, extremely rare or endangered according to the currently valid Red List.
A little boy as a search helper
The centipede manhunt illustrated something else: the ability to track down rare or even lost species does not depend on academic training and years of experience. Because when the sea centipede was first found on Sylt, Reip received help from a little boy who was traveling with his parents. “When asked ‘What are you doing there?’ I described the animal species they were looking for using a picture on my smartphone and explained the purpose of the company to them, ”says Reip. “During the search, one of the boys turned out to be a natural talent and an extremely valuable volunteer. After a short time he not only found the first specimen of Strigamia maritima, but in the following half an hour several ‘nests’ under the stones on the damp silt. “
For the scientist, this is nice proof that the ability to track down species does not have to depend on academic training and years of experience: “Even beginners and laypeople can collect extremely valuable information about biological diversity after brief instructions,” says Reip.
Source: Red List Center; Technical article: Bulletin of the British Myriapod & Isopod Group (PDF)