[1] This centipede is found in France and Monaco in the Western Alps as well as in Italy and the Ionian islands.

Brölemann named this species for the French oceanographer Jules Richard, director of the Musée Océanographique de Monaco, who collected these specimens in 1902.

[6] Since the discovery of this centipede in Monaco, this species has been recorded in other Mediterranean localities in Europe,[3] first elsewhere in the Maritime Alps, in the commune of Villeneuve-Loubet in France,[7] then in the comune of Subiaco in the city of Rome in Italy.

[3][8] On the Italian mainland, this species has been recorded not only in the northwestern regions of Piedmont and Liguria but also from the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines down to southern Calabria.

[3] This species has been recorded in meadows with mosses and humus from the cork oak tree (Quercus suber) or another evergreen, Pistacia lentiscus,[8] from sea level to 350 m in elevation.

[3] This species has also been found in woods of the maritime pine (Pinus pinaster), in maquis shrubland with the holm oak (Quercus ilex) and Pistacia lentiscus, and among shrubs of carob (Ceratonia siliqua), rockrose (Cistus), and the strawberry tree (Arbustus unedo), at altitudes up to 710 m in elevation.

[10][7][15] A few other Geophilus species found in Europe also include centipedes with a number of legs similar to those observed in G. richardi.

[2][10] Moreover, both G. persephones and G. hadesi are found in caves and both share troglomorphic traits, such as elongated antennae: The antennae are at least four times as long as the head is wide in these two species but less than three times as long as the head is wide in G.