Geophilus pusillus

{{Short description|Species of soil centipede}}

{{Speciesbox

| taxon = Geophilus pusillus

| authority = Meinert, 1870

}}

Geophilus pusillus is a species of soil centipede in the family Geophilidae found in Algeria.{{cite web |title=Geophilus pusillus Meinert, 1870 |url=https://chilobase.biologia.unipd.it/searches/result_species/3991 |website=ChiloBase 2.0 |access-date=15 February 2022}} It grows up to 11 millimeters in length.{{cite journal |last1=Bonato |first1=Lucio |last2=Minelli |first2=Alessandro |last3=Drago |first3=Leandro |last4=Pereira |first4=Luis A. |title=The phylogenetic position of Dinogeophilus and a new evolutionary framework for the smallest epimorphic centipedes (Chilopoda: Epimorpha) |journal=Contributions to Zoology |date=2015 |volume=84 |issue=3 |pages=237–253 |doi=10.1163/18759866-08403004 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283072685 |access-date=15 February 2022|doi-access=free |hdl=11577/3146565 |hdl-access=free }} The original description of this species is based on ten specimens: five male specimens from Algeria with 31 pairs of legs, and five specimens from Germany (four males with 33 leg pairs and one female with 35 leg pairs).{{Cite journal |last=Meinert |first=F. |date=1870 |title=Myriapoda Musaei Hauniensis: Bitrag til Myriapodernes morphologi og systematik |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924101122715&seq=82 |journal=Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift |language=Latin, Danish |volume=(3)7 |pages=1–128 [68] |via=HathiTrust}}{{Cite journal |last=Bonato |first=Lucio |last2=Minelli |first2=Alessandro |date=2014-03-03 |title=Chilopoda Geophilomorpha of Europe: a revised list of species, with taxonomic and nomenclatorial notes |url=http://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.3770.1.1 |journal=Zootaxa |volume=3770 |issue=1 |pages=1-136 [86] |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.3770.1.1 |issn=1175-5334|url-access=subscription }} Records from the Alpstein mountains indicate that G. pusillus is a soil-dwelling species (burrowing as deep as 30 cm) that prefers humus-rich soil,{{cite journal |last1=Ambuhl |first1=G. |last2=Wartmann |first2=Bernhard |title=D. exkurisonsgebiet bergell. |journal=Jahrbuch der St. Gallischen Naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft für das Vereinsjahr |date=1901–1902 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWMWAQAAIAAJ&dq=geophilus+pusillus&pg=PA342 |access-date=15 February 2022}} but these records deserve confirmation. Some authorities consider the specimens recorded from Europe to be specimens of G. ribauti that have been misidentified as specimens of the Algerian species G. pusillus.