Heterometrus atrascorpius
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| Heterometrus atrascorpius | ||||||||||||
| Mirza , Joshi , Desouza & Sanap , 2012 |
Heterometrus atrascorpius is an Indian scorpion in the Scorpionidae family .
description
Heterometrus atrascorpius is medium-sized compared to other species in the genus Heterometrus , with a holotype of about 76 to 92 millimeters in length. The body is black-brown in color on the back and abdomen, only the tarsi of the legs are slightly lighter and the sternum is yellow-brown. The poisonous bladder is whitish yellow, the poison sting is reddish brown at the base and black at the top. The femora of the pedipalps are more than twice as long as they are wide, the chelae are elongated, especially when compared to Heterometrus beccaloniae. The comb organs have 15 to 17 teeth on both sides.
distribution and habitat
The terra typica of Heterometrus atrascorpius is located in the village of Bokkapuram near Masinagudi , in the Nilgiris district of the state of Tamil Nadu ( 11 ° 32 ′ 46 ″ N , 76 ° 40 ′ 18 ″ E ) at an altitude of about 900 meters above sea level. It is located in the Mudumalai National Park , one of the nature reserves in the Nilgiri Mountains in the triangle of the Indian states of Karnataka , Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which are part of the Western Ghats UNESCO World Heritage Site .
The localities of Heterometrus atrascorpius are sparsely populated by humans and characterized by thorn bush vegetation. They have numerous rocks under which the scorpions dig their structures. The buildings can be recognized from the outside by their crescent-shaped entrances, which first lead into a tube and then into a chamber. Partially eaten beetles were found in some buildings. Heterometrus atrascorpius shares its habitat with scorpions of the genera Lychas and Hottentotta .
Systematics
Initial description
The first description was made by the Indian arachnologists Zeeshan A. Mirza , Devavarat Joshi , Gavin Desouza and Rajesh V. Sanap in 2012.
In the first description, the authors referred to the first description of Heterometrus beccaloniae published by the Czech arachnologist František Kovařík in 2004 . They took the view that the juvenile paratypes of Heterometrus beccaloniae determined by Kovařík must in fact be specimens of Heterometrus atrascorpius .
Type material
The holotype is according to the authors of the first description an adult female, as paratypes were an adult male and a subadult female animal determined. The type specimens are in the collection of the Bombay Natural History Society in Mumbai . The arachnologists H. Muhammad Tahir and Lorenzo Prendini later took the view that it was obvious that none of the types was an adult specimen. Therefore, the diagnostic criteria used are unreliable and their use to differentiate the new species from others is invalid.
etymology
The species name is made up of the Latin names atra (German: "dark") and scorpio (German: "Skorpion").
literature
- Zeeshan A. Mirza, Devavarat Joshi, Gavin Desouza and Rajesh V. Sanap: Description of a new species of scorpion of the genus Heterometrus Ehrenberg, 1828 (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae) from the Western Ghats, India. In: Indian Journal of Arachnology 2012, Volume 1, No. 2, pp. 1–8, online PDF , 469 kB.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Zeeshan A. Mirza et al .: Description of a new species of scorpion of the genus Heterometrus, p. 2.
- ^ Zeeshan A. Mirza et al .: Description of a new species of scorpion of the genus Heterometrus, p. 3.
- ↑ Zeeshan A. Mirza et al .: Description of a new species of scorpion of the genus Heterometrus, p. 6.
- ↑ a b Zeeshan A. Mirza et al .: Description of a new species of scorpion of the genus Heterometrus, p. 7.
- ↑ František Kovařík: A review of the genus Heterometrus Ehrenberg, 1828, with descriptions of seven new species (Scorpiones, Scorpionidae). In: Euscorpius , 2004, No. 15, pp. 1-60, online PDF , 6.3 MB.
- ^ H. Muhammad Tahir and Lorenzo Prendini, Redescription of Heterometrus latimanus and confirmation of the genus Heterometrus (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae) in Pakistan. In: American Museum Novitates 2014, No. 3805, p. 3, doi : 10.1206 / 3805.1 .