Heterometrus fulvipes
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Heterometrus fulvipes is an Indian scorpion in the Scorpionidae family .
description
Heterometrus fulvipes is a 70 to 100 millimeter long scorpion. Adult animals have a reddish-brown to black basic color. The legs and the telson are yellow to yellow-brown or red-brown and always lighter than the body. The femora and patella of the pedipalps of males are a little more elongated than those of females. The chelae are lobed, with a length to width ratio of around 1.7 to 1.9 to 1 in both sexes, but they differ in shape. Their top is covered with rounded granules that do not form keels. The carapace has a smooth and shiny surface with granular edges in juvenile and some adult female scorpions. In most of the adult animals the entire surface is sparsely covered with granules. The combs of the comb organ have 12 to 18 teeth in both sexes. The telson is hairy, with a poisonous bladder at least as long as the poison sting .
distribution and habitat
Java was incorrectly specified as the Terra typica of Heterometrus fulvipes in the first description . With the establishment of a neotype in 1981, Nashik in the west Indian state of Maharashtra became a type location.
The species is widespread in almost the entire Indian national territory, records are only missing for the states of Goa and Kerala as well as for the Union territory of Puducherry .
Way of life
Like the other species of the genus Heterometrus, Heterometrus fulvipes digs residential tubes in loamy soil. The structures are on average 40 centimeters long, angled tubes at the foot of trees or bushes. They can be recognized from the outside by their characteristic crescent-shaped opening of 3.5 to 4.5 centimeters wide in adult residents and have a chamber at the end. The offspring only stay on the mother's back for 8 to 12 days, but then live in her den for a long time. Occasionally two broods live in the mother's den. The reasons for this are suspected to be the endangerment of predators and the difficulty of digging residential tubes during the dry seasons. The tubes, inhabited by a mother and her offspring, are gradually being redesigned by the juvenile scorpions into a building with several exits.
The young animals not only show no cannibalism among each other in the nest , but also show pronounced social behavior that comes close to eusociality . They act in a division of labor when expanding the nest and when hunting. The mother communicates with the offspring using stridulation noises and provides pre-digested food that the young animals share among themselves.
Systematics
Initial description
The first description was given by Carl Ludwig Koch in the fourth volume of his work The Arachnids , published in 1837, based on a single, presumably female, specimen from the collection of the Nuremberg naturalist and copper engraver Jacob Sturm . According to Sturm's statements, Koch incorrectly gave Java as the “fatherland” .
Type material
The collection copy on which Koch used his first description has been lost. In 1981, from the specimens used by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1900 for the first description of Heterometrus fulvipes bombayensis , HWC Couzijn selected a female scorpion whose appearance came close to the first description by CL Koch and came from an area suitable as a type location. Like the other syntypes of "Heterometrus fulvipes bombayensis", this neotype is in the Natural History Museum in London.
etymology
Koch gave no information about the etymology of the species name. It is derived from the Latin words fulvus (German: red-yellow, brown-yellow ) and pes (German: foot ).
Synonyms and subspecies
Like all species of the genus described in the 18th and 19th centuries Heterometrus also subject to Heterometrus fulvipes repeatedly changed genus belonging. This was the result of different views of the arachnologists about the validity of individual genres and their differentiation from one another. Thus Heterometrus fulvipes in the genera and subgenera since 1837 Buthus , Scorpio , Pandinus , Palamnaeus , Heterometrus , Heterometrus (Scorpio) and most recently in 1981 by Couzijn in the subgenus Heterometrus (Chersonesometrus) provided. The subgenus Chersonesometrus and all other subgenera of Heterometrus described by Couzijn were repealed in 2004 by František Kovařík in his revision of the genus Heterometrus .
- Palamnaeus fulvipes bombayensis Pocock , 1900 : Pocock described this subspecies in his volume on arachnids in the fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma . It was synonymized with Heterometrus fulvipes by Couzijn in 1981 , Couzijn took one of Pocock's syntypes as a neotype for Buthus fulvipes C. L. Koch , 1837.
- Palamnaeus fulvipes madraspatensis Pocock , 1900 : Pocock also described this subspecies in 1900, and it was synonymous with Heterometrus fulvipes by Couzijn in 1981 . BK Tikader and DB Bastawade raised it to the species Heterometrus madraspatensis in 1983 .
toxicology
From the scorpion venom of Heterometrus fulvipes , two proteins with an unusual structure could be identified, κ-yefutoxin 1 and κ-yefutoxin 2 , which not only block certain potassium channels but also delay their activation. Another protein, HfPLA 2 , is a phospholipase A 2 and blocks the ryanodine receptors RYR1 and RYR2.
literature
- 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.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b František Kovařík: A review of the genus Heterometrus, p. 15.
- ↑ a b c d H. WC Couzijn: Revision of the genus Heterometrus. In: Zoologische Verhandelingen 1981, Volume 184, No. 1, pp. 1–196, here pp. 133–136, (also dissertation, University of Leiden 1981), online PDF , 18.6 MB.
- ^ A b Victor Fet: Family SCORPIONIDAE Latreille, 1802. In: Victor Fet et al .: Catalog of the scorpions of the world (1758-1998). The New York Entomological Society, New York 2000, pp. 427-486, here p. 439, download links .
- ^ František Kovařík: A review of the genus Heterometrus, p. 52.
- ↑ a b T. Shivashankar: Advanced sub social behavior in the scorpion Heterometrus fulvipes Brunner (Arachnida). In: Journal of Biosciences 1994, Volume 19, No. 1, pp. 81-90, doi : 10.1007 / BF02703471 .
- ↑ Carl Ludwig Koch: The arachnids. Fourth volume. CH Zeh'sche Buchhandlung, Nuremberg 1837-1838, pp. 45-46, plate CXXI (Fig. 278), digitized .
- ↑ Alois Walde: Latin Etymological Dictionary , second revised edition. Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1910, digitized .
- ↑ František Kovařík: A review of the genus Heterometrus, pp. 2-4.
- ^ A b Reginald Innes Pocock: Arachnida. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Taylor & Francis, London 1900, pp. 87-89, digitized .
- ↑ BK Tikader and DB Bastawade: Scorpions (Scorpionida: Arachnida). The Fauna of India, Vol. 3. Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta 1983, pp. 630-635, Online PDF , 30 MB.
- ↑ Kellathur N. Srinivasan et al .: κ-Hefutoxin1, a novel toxin from the scorpion Heterometrus fulvipes with unique structure and function. Importance of the functional diad in potassium channel selectivity . In: The Journal of Biological Chemistry 2002, Volume 277, No. 33, pp. 30040-30047, doi : 10.1074 / jbc.M111258200 .
- ↑ Gururao Hariprasad et al .: Cloning, sequence analysis and homology modeling of a novel phospholipase A2 from Heterometrus fulvipes (Indian black scorpion) . In: DNA Sequence 2007, Volume 18, No. 3, pp. 242-246, doi : 10.1080 / 10425170701243294 .