[4] These centipedes are found not only in the Mediterranean parts of mainland France, Corsica, Sardinia, the Italian peninsula, Sicily, the Balkan peninsula, the Aegean islands, Anatolia, and the coastal region of the eastern Mediterranean Sea but also in the Atlas mountains of North Africa, central Europe, and the Carpathian mountains, as well as around the Black Sea and in the western Caucasus.

Scattered records from the Baltic region and the central and southern parts of Great Britain are mostly from synanthropic sites and may reflect introduction by humans.

[3] The genus features a head that is slightly longer than wide, without a frontal line evident on the dorsal plate.

The sternum of the forcipular segment feature chitin-lines but lack evident teeth on the anterior margin.

The sternum of this segment is also wider than long, shaped like a rectangle or a trapezoid that is only slightly narrower at the rear end.

Males of the species S. romana can have as few as 43 pairs of legs, the minimum number recorded in this genus.

This analysis places representatives of the genera Stenotaenia and Diphyonyx together in a clade in a phylogenetic tree of the order Geophilomorpha.

[8] As close relatives in the family Geophilidae, the genera Stenotaenia, Diphyonyx, and Tuoba share many distinctive traits.

For example, all three genera feature heads that are only slightly elongated, coxal glands opening into pouches, and ultimate legs with claws.

For example, both of these genera feature forcipular sterna without anterior tubercles and forcipules with a smooth internal margin on each ultimate article.