Opistophthalmus penrithorum
| Opistophthalmus penrithorum | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Opistophthalmus penrithorum | ||||||||||||
| Lamoral , 1979 |
Opistophthalmus penrithorum is in Namibia endemic occurring Scorpio from the family Scorpionidae .
features
Opistophthalmus penrithorum is a small to medium-sized scorpion about 65 millimeters in length. It has a dark yellow-brown color of various tones. The legs and the first to sixth sternite are yellow-orange, the crest organs and the genital perculum are bright yellow.
The median pair of ocelles is clearly behind the center of the carapace , the length of the carapace is about 1.75 to 1.80 times the distance between the ocelles and the front edge. The median ocelles are large, their distance from one another is only about one diameter. The sternum is approximately pentagonal and as long as it is wide. The comb organs have 18 to 22 teeth in male scorpions and 12 to 16 teeth in female. The ratio of the lengths of the movable fingers of the chelae to the length of the back of the hand is about 1.60 to 1.
The surface of the carapace and the tergite is fine-grained in male scorpions, while the area around the median ocelles is smooth and shiny. The seventh tergite has slightly grained lateral surfaces. Carapace and tergite have a smooth and shiny surface in female scorpions. The third and fourth segments of the metasoma have no keels and the telson is not granulated anteriorly. The upper and outer sides of the chelae and tibiae as well as the upper sides of the femora of the pedipalps are smooth and glossy to slightly reticulate, with only a few scattered granules. The insides of these links also have scattered granules. The remaining surfaces of the exoskeleton are smooth and shiny.
Male specimens of Opistophthalmus penrithorum have an overall slimmer appearance than the female and are generally lighter in color. Their carapace is narrower, and while their metasoma is about 25 percent longer than the carapace and mesosome, the length is about the same in female scorpions. The comb organs have 18 to 22 teeth in male scorpions and 12 to 16 teeth in female. The pedipalps of males are more hairy.
Opistophthalmus penrithorum is closely related to Opistophthalmus flavescens , but can be distinguished from this and the other species of the genus Opistophthalmus by the location of the median ocelles, the missing keels on the third and fourth metasomal segments, and the smooth surface of the underside of the telson.
distribution and habitat
The terra typica of Opistophthalmus penrithorum is located on the dry Ururas river near Rooibank , the former Scheppmansdorf, in the Namibian region of Erongo ( 23 ° 14 ′ 0.6 ″ S , 18 ° 42 ′ 0 ″ E ). The distribution area includes the gravel plains of the Erongo region.
Way of life
All the specimens of Opistophthalmus penrithorum found were found in shallow excavated cavities under large stones. The ground at the sites was hard. The species is believed to be nocturnal.
Systematics
Initial description
The first description of Opistophthalmus penrithorum was made in 1979 by the South African arachnologists Bruno H. Lamoral in an extensive monograph of scorpions Namibia, published in the Annals of the Natal Museum (now the African Invertebrates ).
Type material
The type material consists of an adult female holotype and two subadult females, as well as four adult and two subadult male paratypes. The holotype and two adult males and one subadult male and one female paratype are in the collection of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg . Two adult male paratypes are in the collection of the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History in Pretoria, one sub-adult male and one female paratype are deposited in the Namibian National Museum in Windhoek.
etymology
The species name penrithorum honors the South African zoologists Mary-Lou Penrith from the University of Pretoria and Mike Penrith from the National Zoological Gardens in Pretoria .
literature
- Bruno H. Lamoral: The scorpions of Namibia (Arachnida: Scorpionida) . In: Annals of the Natal Museum 1979, Volume 23, No. 3, pp. 497-784, here pp. 738-742, ISSN 0304-0798 , online .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Bruno H. Lamoral: The scorpions of Namibia (Arachnida: Scorpionida) , p. 738.
- ↑ a b c d e f Bruno H. Lamoral: The scorpions of Namibia (Arachnida: Scorpionida) , p. 742.
- ↑ a b c Bruno H. Lamoral: The scorpions of Namibia (Arachnida: Scorpionida) , p. 740.
- ↑ Gérard Dupré: Dictionary of scientific scorpion names. In: Arachnides. Bulletin de Terrariophilie et de Recherche 2016, Supplément au n ° 78, p. 48, online PDF , 560 kB.