Belisarius (genus)
| Belisarius | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Belisarius xambeui |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the subfamily | ||||||||||||
| Belisariinae | ||||||||||||
| Lourenço, 1998 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Belisarius | ||||||||||||
| Simon , 1879 |
Belisarius is a genus of scorpions with two species that isrestricted to southwestern Europe. Her family membership is controversial, she belongs to one of the families Troglotayosicidae or Superstitioniidae .
description
The front edge of the carapace is slightly U-shaped, the median pair of ocelles is missing and the lateral ocelles are severely receded. The sternum is type 2, rounded on the anterior side and slightly wider than it is long. The combs of the comb organ are shortened and each have only four to six teeth. The fingers of the chelicerae are strongly curved and the movable fingers are provided with a serrula at the extreme end .
distribution and habitat
The two species of the genus Belisarius are common in small areas, Belisarius xambeui in the Spanish and French Pyrenees , Belisarius ibericus in the southern Spanish province of Málaga .
Way of life
Both species of the genus have pronounced adaptations to cave life, but are not true troglobionts . Belisarius xambeui lives more often outside of caves in the deciduous layer of beech forests, and Belisarius ibericus has also been found under stones outside of caves.
Systematics
External system
There is still no consensus about the position of the genus Belisarius within the scorpions. Since it was first described, it was considered to be closely related to the genus Euscorpius . Accordingly, it was placed in 1917 by the Russian arachnologist Alexei Andrejewitsch Bjalynizki-Birulja in the subfamily Euscorpiinae of the family Chactidae . In 1992, the American arachnologist Scott A. Stockwell carried out a comprehensive revision of the families Chactidae and Vaejovidae , with which he placed the genus Belisarius with the genus Troglotayosicus in the Superstitioniidae , which was raised to the family of a subfamily of the Chactidae . Stockwell justified his extensive changes with the fact that the families Chactidae and Vaejovidae eluded a description in their compilation at the time, and were worthless in terms of taxonomy and phylogenetics . His changes were made with the intention of mapping phylogenetic relationships and relied only on patterns of the Trichobothria , which correspond to New World genera.
1998 Wilson R. Lourenço described the family Troglotayosicidae , in which he added the subfamily Belisariinae with the genus Belisarius . In the catalog of the world's scorpions that appeared a few years later, the American arachnologists Victor Fet and W. David Sissom criticized Stockwell's and Lourenço's changes because, in their view, they were not based on clear characteristics. Regardless of this, the new system was still used. In 2003 Michael E. Soleglad and Victor Fet placed Belisarius back in the subfamily Brotheinae of the Chactidae family. The Belisariinae subfamily described by Lourenço was downgraded to the Belisarini tribe . In 2005 Lorenzo Prendini and Ward C. Wheeler revoked all changes published by Soleglad and Fet since 2001 in the higher systematics of the scorpions. However, just two months later, Soleglad and Fet reiterated their changes. Thus Belisarius is formally a genus of the family Superstitioniidae.
Since then, the Troglotayosicidae family has continued to be used by several authors in their current work on the genera Belisarius and Troglotayosicus without formally reinstating them. The website The Scorpion Files , operated by the Norwegian arachnologist Jan Ove Rein on the servers of the Technical University of Norway , whose data is used in the Catalog of Life , lists Troglotayosicidae again as a family with the genus Belisarius .
Initial description
It was first described in 1879 by the French arachnologist Eugène Simon in the seventh volume of his work Les Arachnides de France .
Type species
Based on the monotype at the time of description, the type species is Belisarius xambeui .
etymology
The name of the genus refers to Flavius Belisarius , an Eastern Roman general and general under Emperor Justinian . According to the historically false Belisarius legend, he died a blind beggar in Rome. Belisarius xambeui was the first known blind scorpion, which prompted Simon to name it with reference to Belisarius.
literature
- Eugène Simon: 3rd order. - Scorpiones . In: the same: Les Arachnides de France. VII. Contenant les Ordres des Chernetes, Scorpiones et Opiliones . Roret, Paris 1879, pp. 79–115, here pp. 114–115 and panel XX (first description).
- Max Vachon: Remarques sur le scorpion aveugle du Roussillon: Belisarius xambeui ES In: Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle 1944, Volume 16, No. 5, pp. 298-305, digitized .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Max Vachon: Remarques sur le scorpion aveugle du Roussillon: Belisarius xambeui ES , pp. 302-303.
- ^ Matthew R. Graham and Victor Fet: Serrula in retrospect: a historical look at scorpion literature (Scorpiones: Orthosterni) . In: Euscorpius 2006, No. 48, p. 3, Online PDF , 6.0 MB.
- ^ A b Wilson R. Lourenço: Panbiogéographie, les distributions disjointes et le concept de famille relictuelle chez les scorpions . In: Biogeographica 1998, Volume 74, No. 3, pp. 133-144, ISSN 0037-9018 .
- ^ Wilson R. Lourenço: The genus Belisarius Simon, 1879 (Scorpiones: Troglotayosicidae), with the description of a new vicariant species from the south of Spain. In: Comptes Rendus Biologies 2015, Volume 338, No. 5, pp. 362-367, here p. 364, doi : 10.1016 / j.crvi.2015.03.014 .
- ↑ W. David Sissom: Family chactidae Pocock, 1893 . In: Victor Fet et al .: Catalog of the scorpions of the world (1758-1998). The New York Entomological Society, New York 2000, pp. 287–322, here pp. 287–288, download links , accessed December 23, 2017.
- ^ Scott A. Stockwell: Systematic Observations on North American Scorpionida with a Key and Checklist of the Families and Genera . In: Journal of Medical Entomology 1992, Volume 29, No. 3, pp. 407-422, here pp. 410-411, doi : 10.1093 / jmedent / 29.3.407 .
- ^ A b Victor Fet and W. David Sissom: Family Troglotayosicidae Lourenço, 1998 . In: Victor Fet et al .: Catalog of the scorpions of the world (1758-1998). The New York Entomological Society, New York 2000, pp. 501-502, download links , accessed January 27, 2018.
- ↑ Michael E. Soleglad and Victor Fet: High-level systematics and phylogeny of the extant scorpions (Scorpiones: Orthosterni). In: Euscorpius 2003, No. 11, p. 102, Online PDF , 37.5 MB.
- ↑ Lorenzo Prendini and Ward C. Wheeler: Scorpion higher phylogeny and classification, taxonomic anarchy, and standards for peer review in online publishing. In: Cladistics 2005, Volume 21, No. 5, pp. 446-494, Online PDF , 1.8 MB.
- ^ Victor Fet and Michael E. Soleglad: Contributions to scorpion systematics. I. On recent changes in high-level taxonomy. In: Euscorpius 2005, No. 31, pp. 1–13, online PDF , 689 kB.
- ^ Jan Ove Rein: The Scorpion Files. Troglotayosicidae Lourenço, 1998 , accessed January 26, 2017.
- ^ A b Eugène Simon: 3rd order. - Scorpiones .