13 March, 2008

Parthenogenesis in scorpions - new review article

Professor Wilson Lourenco has published an interesting review on parthenogenesis in scorpions. This is a rare phenomenon in arachnids, but so far parthenogenesis has been reported in 12 scorpion species:

Tityus columbianus (Thorell, 1876)
T. metuendus Pocock, 1897
T. serrulatus Lutz & Mello, 1922
Tityus sp. [New sp. not yet described - info in the article]
T. stigmurus (Thorell, 1876)
T. trivittatus Kraepelin, 1898
T. uruguayensis Borelli, 1901
Ananteris coineaui Lourenco, 1982
Centruroides gracilis (Latreille, 1804)
Hottentotta caboverdensis Lourenco & Ythier, 2006
H. hottentotta (Fabricius, 1787)
Liocheles australasiae (Fabricius, 1775)

Professor Lourenco discuss the general theory behind parthenogenesis in animals, compare these to the situation seen in scorpions, and finally presents some selected examples of geographic parthenogenesis in scorpions.

Reference:
Lourenco WR. Parthenogenesis in scorpions: Some history - new data. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins Including Tropical Diseases. 2008;14(1):19-44. [Fulltext freely available, but issue 1, 2008 has not been published on the website yet]

07 March, 2008

Two new species listed in Centruroides (Buthidae)

The following two species were raised from subspecies to species rank in 1999, but have not previously been known to me until now:

Centruroides baergi Hoffmann, 1932 (Buthidae)
Centruroides meisei Hoffmann, 1939 (Buthidae)

Thanks to Alex Tietz for notifying me about these two species!

Reference:
de Armas LF, Martin Frias E. Complementos a la taxonomía de Centruroides nigrovariatus y C. elegans (Scorpiones: Buthidae) de México. Anales de la Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas. 1999;44:27-35.

Family Buthidae