Heterometrus telanganaensis
| Heterometrus telanganaensis | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Heterometrus telanganaensis | ||||||||||||
| Javed , Mirza , Tampal & Lourenço , 2010 |
Heterometrus telanganaensis is a scorpion of the family Scorpionidae native tothe Indian state of Telangana .
features
Heterometrus telanganaensis is a small member of the genus Heterometrus with a length of about 6.5 cm . The front part of the carapace, the metasoma and the pedipalps are colored reddish brown. The mesosoma is almost black, both fingers of the chelae and the keels of the metasoma are jet black. The legs are yellowish brown.
The carapace has a pronounced U-shaped depression at the front end and is almost smooth in this area. On the edges and on the back it is covered with granules. The pentagonal sternum is longer than it is wide. The comb organs are lilac brown with 10–13 teeth. The metasoma is shorter than the mesosoma and more than twice as long as the carapace.
The chelae are covered on the upper side with irregularly shaped granules and have fewer trichobothria compared to other species of the genus . The movable fingers of the chelae are shorter than the length of the carapace and have four teeth, of which the first (basal) and third are significantly smaller than the second and fourth. The immobile fingers have two teeth. The distal tooth is very pronounced, while the basal one has two tips and gives the impression that it was created from two teeth that had grown together.
distribution and habitat
The terra typica and the only place where Heterometrus telanganaensis was found so far is the village of Regonda in the Warangal district of the Indian state of Telangana ( 18 ° 14 ′ N , 79 ° 49 ′ E ). Regonda is on average around 300 m above sea level. The area is characterized by a warm and dry climate, with maximum daily temperatures of over 40 ° C in summer and 22–23 ° C in winter. The monsoons last from June to September and deliver more than 500mm of precipitation during this period.
Way of life
Heterometrus telanganaensis is one of those species of the genus Heterometrus that digs burrows to stay during the day. The site was a hill surrounded by agricultural land. Two types of structures were discovered in a shady area. The most common had only an entrance of 20 to 25 mm in diameter, to which a tube extending to a depth of about 150 mm was connected. This kinked off, ran parallel to the surface, and ended up opening into a chamber. The second type of structure had multiple entrances and apparently served as a breeding cave . The corridors coming from the entrances met the main corridor, and this led to a more spacious chamber.
Systematics
It was first described in 2010 by SM Maqsood Javed, two of his colleagues in the Indian section of the World Wide Fund For Nature , and the arachnologist Wilson R. Lourenço from the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. It was published in a Spanish entomological journal. The description was based on three specimens found in September and October 2010 that could not be identified at first. The type specimens are in the collection of the Zoological Survey of India in Hyderabad.
The specific epithet telanganaensis refers to today's Indian state Telangana, which at the time of the first description was still a region of the state of Andhra Pradesh .
literature
- SM Maqsood Javed, Zeeshan A. Mirza, Farida Tampal and Wilson R. Lourenço: A new species of the genus Heterometrus Ehrenberg, 1828 (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae) from India with notes on its natural history. In: Boletin de la Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa (SEA) 2010, Volume 47, pp. 143-148, online PDF .