Rediscovery of synanthropic silverfish Ctenolepisma calvum (Ritter, 1910) (Insecta: Zygentoma: Lepismatidae: Ctenolepismatinae) from Kerala, India and assignation of European C. calvum to a new species

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Rafael, Sheeba Raphel, Andrew, Rafael Molero-Baltanás, Joyce, Andrew Mitchell, Jose, Joyce (2025): Rediscovery of synanthropic silverfish Ctenolepisma calvum (Ritter, 1910) (Insecta: Zygentoma: Lepismatidae: Ctenolepismatinae) from Kerala, India and assignation of European C. calvum to a new species. Zoosystema 47 (21): 425-443, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2025v47a21, URL: sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/zoosystema2025v47a21.pdf ABSTRACT Ctenolepisma calvum (Ritter, 1910) (Zygentoma: Lepismatidae: Ctenolepismatinae) was first described with two pairs of styli by Ritter on the basis of specimens from Sri Lanka found in houses.

Recent records of synanthropic populations of Ctenolepisma Escherich, 1905 with similar habitus were attributed to this species and redescribed as bearing only one pair of styli, interpreting Ritter’s reference to the number of styli as erroneous. However, a species of silverfish from Kerala, India, has been found that matches Ritter’s description of C. calvum in terms of morphological characters and is genetically different from the lineages of European Ctenolepisma previously attributed to C. calvum.