Part I of an Illustrated catalog of scorpions is published

I just received information that František Kovařík has published the first part of his Illustrated Catalog of Scorpions. Part one includes introductory remarks, keys to families and genera, subfamily Scorpioninae with keys to Heterometrus and Pandinus species.

I have not seen this book myself yet, so I'm including the information available from the publisher:
An often encountered problem in estimations of animal diversity is a paucity of illustrated reviews allowing those not engaged in descriptive taxonomy fast orientation in given groups. Whereas for some invertebrates, namely butterflies and beetles, such reviews are available for most families, no such work has so far existed for the scorpions. To fill the gap, I have prepared the present volume. It consists of introductory remarks (morphology, toxicity, reproduction, ontogeny etc.), keys to all families and genera described by the end of 2008, a list of genera with their distributions and numbers of species, and 650 color photos depicting most species of the subfamily Scorpioninae (Heterometrus, Pandinus, Scorpio and Opistophthalmus). Many of the illustrated specimens are types, whose study has in several instances necessitated taxonomic changes. The treatment of Heterometrus and Pandinus includes species diagnoses and keys to species. All species of Pandinus are illustrated, most of them for the first time. The genus Scorpio includes characterizations and photos of all 11 valid subspecies. The volume is printed in A4 format, with a hard cover>

More information about how to order the book can be found on Kovarik's homepage.

10 pages from the book is freely available (pdf).

Jan Ove Rein
Editor of The Scorpion Files