23 September, 2015

Two new buthids from Puerto Rico


Rolando Teruel and co-workers have recently described two new species in the family Buthidae from the island of Vieques, Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico.

Microtityus vieques Teruel, Rivera & Santos, 2015

Tityus alejandroi  Teruel, Rivera & Santos, 2015

A checklist of scorpions confirmed to occur in Puerto Rico (including Mona and excluding the Virgin Islands) is presented in the article.

Abstract:
Two new scorpion species of the family Buthidae are described herein: Microtityus vieques sp. n. (a member of the subgenus Parvabsonus Armas, 1974) and Tityus alejandroi sp. n. (belonging to the “quisqueyanus” species-group). Both were collected from pitfall traps in the Puerto Rican satellite island of Vieques, in the Greater Antilles, and the former represents the first official record of the occurrence there of the gens Microtityus Kjellesvig-Waering, 1966. As expected, the new species have their closest relatives in Puerto Rico. Fully illustrated descriptions and detailed comparisons are provided. Additionally, two other Puerto Rican species of Tityus currently not assigned to any group are herein formally transferred to the “quisqueyanus” species group: Tityus angelesae Santiago-Blay, 2009 and Tityus juliorum Santiago-Blay, 2009. After this contribution, the scorpion fauna of Puerto Rico is now composed of 19 species.

Reference:
Teruel R, Rivera MJ, Santos CJ. Two new scorpions from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, Greater Antilles (Scorpiones: Buthidae). Euscorpius. 2015 (208):1-15. [Open Access]

Family Buthidae

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