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Subterranean biodiversity of North America and around the globe

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Cave Biology Data Portal
Subterranean biodiversity of North America and around the globe
AnimaliaArthropodaMyriapodaDiplopodaChordeumatidaTrichopetalidaeScoterpes

Scoterpes ventus Shear, 1972

Taxonomy

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Myriapoda
Class Diplopoda
Order Chordeumatida
Family Trichopetalidae
Genus Scoterpes
Species Scoterpes ventus Shear, 1972

Description

Diagnostic characters

Ecological class
Troglobiont
Realm
Terrestrial
Troglomorphy
Troglomorphic

Distribution

Type locality

Blowing Cave (=Sequatchie Cave), Marion Co. TN

Range

Known from 13 counties in Tennessee in the Interior Low Plateau karst region.

Continent

North America

Country

United States

States and provinces

Tennessee

Counties

Tennessee
Cannon, DeKalb, Franklin, Grundy, Jackson, Marion, Overton, Putnam, Sequatchie, Smith, Van Buren, Warren, White

Karst regions

Interior Low Plateau

Specimens

Type material

Holotype
88313 · Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard

Collections holding material

InstitutionLots
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 1

1 cataloged lot in 1 collection. Compiled from GBIF and not an exhaustive census: many collections are not yet digitised, and holdings are added continually. Search GBIF for specimen records.

Download all 1 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.

Conservation and management

NatureServe

G3 Vulnerable

G1G2G3▲G4G5

Global rank last reviewed 24 September 2010.

Subnational ranks

Tennessee
S1 Critically Imperiled

Ranks looked up 23 August 2026. Conservation status changes, and a rank here is as current as that date and no more.

State and federal status

Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Other resources

Catalogue of Life
79YJ4
GBIF
1023762
ITIS
570476
iNaturalist
230682

References

  • Dixon, G.B. & Zigler, K.S. 2011. Cave-obligate biodiversity on the campus of Sewanee: The University of the South, Franklin County, Tennessee. Southeastern Naturalist 10: 251–266. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41263008. details
  • Lewis, J.J. 2005a. A biological inventory of caves of the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 156 pp.
  • Lewis, J.J. 2009b. Eight new cavernicolous species of the milliped genus Pseudotremia (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida: Cleidogonidae). In: Roble, S.M. & Mithcell, J.C. (eds), A Lifetime of Contributions to Myriapodology and the Natural History of Virginia: A Festschrift in Honor of Richard L. Hoffman’s 80th Birthday. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 16, pp. 171–186. Virginia Museum of Natural History, Martinsville, Virginia, USA.
  • Loomis, H.F. 1939. The millipeds collected in Appalachian caves by Mr. Kenneth Dearolf. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 86: 165–193. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2775893. details
  • Niemiller, M.L. & Zigler, K.S. 2013. Patterns of cave biodiversity and endemism in the Appalachians and Interior Plateau of Tennessee, USA. PLOS One 8: e64177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064177
  • Niemiller, M.L., Zigler, K.S., Hinkle, A., Stephen, C.D.R., Cramphorn, B., Higgs, J., Mann, N., Miller, B.T., Niemiller, K.D.K., Smallwood, K. & Hardy, J. 2023b. The Crystal-Wonder Cave System: a new hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the southern Cumberland Plateau of south-central Tennessee, USA. Diversity 15: 801. doi:10.3390/d15070801
  • Page, G. 2021. Troglofauna of Van Buren and White County: a survey of four caves in the mideastern Cumberland Plateau. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. 18 pp.
  • Shear, W.A. 1972. Studies in the milliped order Chordeumida (Diplopoda): A revision of the family Cleidogonidae and a reclassification of the order Chordeumida in the New World. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 144: 151–352. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4227660. details
  • Shear, W.A. 2010a. The milliped family Trichopetalidae, Part 2: The genera Trichopetalum, Zygonopus and Scoterpes (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida, Cleidogonoidea). Zootaxa 2385: 1–62. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2385.1.1

This account was last revised 28 August 2026. Conservation ranks were looked up 23 August 2026.

How to cite this account

Scoterpes ventus Shear, 1972. Cave Biology Data Portal, account SP-0583. https://cavebiology.org/species/scoterpes-ventus/ (accessed 18 October 2026).
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Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.

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Cave Biology Data Portal

Species accounts, distributions, and conservation status for the subterranean fauna of North America and around the globe, with resources for the cave and karst research community.

Text and data CC BY 4.0. Images all rights reserved unless stated.

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