Opistophthalmus pygmaeus
| Opistophthalmus pygmaeus | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Opistophthalmus pygmaeus | ||||||||||||
| Lamoral , 1979 |
Opistophthalmus pygmaeus is in Namibia endemic occurring Scorpio from the family Scorpionidae .
features
Opistophthalmus pygmaeus is a small scorpion 38 to 42 millimeters in length and a strong brown color. The tergites and sternites are yellow-brown. The posterior margins of the carapace, tergites and the third to sixth sternites are dark yellow-orange, the comb organ light yellow- orange . The legs and the telson are colored brown-orange.
The median pair of ocelles is well in front of the center of the carapace , the length of the carapace is about 2.10 to 2.25 times the distance between the ocelles and the front edge. The median ocelles are large, with only a short distance from one another. The sternum is approximately pentagonal and slightly longer than it is wide. The comb organs have nine to 13 teeth in male scorpions and one to three teeth in females. The length of the chelicerae corresponds to about 60 percent of the length of the carapace, their fingers are longer than the back of the hand, the movable fingers are strongly curved at the end. In the chelae of the pedipalps, the ratio of the length of the movable fingers to the length of the back of the hand is about 1.06 to 1. The legs of the two front pairs of legs each have a comb-like row of long setae on the front and rear edges of the telotarsus , basitarsus and tibia .
Male scorpions remain smaller with a maximum of 38 millimeters than the female with a body length of up to 42 millimeters. The male scorpions have a proportionally narrower carapace and therefore appear slimmer. The surface of the carapace and tergite is slightly granulated in male scorpions, as is the area around the median ocelles, in female scorpions it is smooth and shiny. The ventral surface of the fifth metasomal segment is dense and finely grained, with no ventral and lateral keels. The front half of the underside of the telson is slightly granulated. The tops and outsides of the chelae, tibia, and femora of the pedipalps are smooth and shiny, with a slight reticulate texture. All other surfaces of the exoskeleton are smooth and shiny.
Opistophthalmus pygmaeus is closely related to Opistophthalmus concinnus , but differs from it and from all other species of the genus Opistophthalmus in its small size, the position of the median pairs of ocelles on the carapace and the number and distribution of the trichobothria on the chelae and tibia of the pedipalps. The hemispermatophores of both types differ in several features.
distribution and habitat
The terra typica of Opistophthalmus pygmaeus is located on the Louwshoop farm near Karasburg in the Namibian region of ǁKaras ( 28 ° 3 ′ 23 ″ S , 18 ° 4 ′ 47 ″ E ). A very limited range in southern Namibia, south of the 27th parallel, is assumed for the species.
Way of life
All specimens of Opistophthalmus pygmaeus found were found resting on dunes or on sandy surfaces during the night. The floor was not very hard, but no residential tubes could be found. It is therefore uncertain whether the sites are also the places where the species builds its buildings. The species lives sympatric with Opistophthalmus lornae .
Systematics
Initial description
The first description of Opistophthalmus pygmaeus 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 unusually extensive type material consists of an adult female holotype and two female and 160 male paratypes. The holotype and numerous paratypes are in the collection of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum in Pietermaritzburg . Other paratypes are in the collections of the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History in Pretoria, the Namibian National Museum in Windhoek, the Natural History Museum in London, the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
etymology
The species name pygmaeus is derived from the ancient Greek word πυγμαῖος pygmaíos , which was taken over in the ancient world with the meaning dwarfish in the Latin language . It refers to the small body size compared to other species of the genus Opistophthalmus .
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. 742-745, ISSN 0304-0798 , online .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Bruno H. Lamoral: The scorpions of Namibia (Arachnida: Scorpionida) , p. 743.
- ↑ a b c d e f Bruno H. Lamoral: The scorpions of Namibia (Arachnida: Scorpionida) , p. 745.
- ↑ a b c d e Bruno H. Lamoral: The scorpions of Namibia (Arachnida: Scorpionida) , p. 742.
- ↑ Gérard Dupré: Dictionary of scientific scorpion names. In: Arachnides. Bulletin de Terrariophilie et de Recherche 2016, Supplément au n ° 78, p. 51, Online PDF , 560 kB.