Two new species of Euscorpiops from Thailand and Myanmar

Frantisek Kovarik and co-workers have recently described two new species of Euscorpiops Vachon, 1980 (Euscorpiidae) from Asia.

Euscorpiops artemisae Kovarík, Kosulic, Stahlavsky, Dongkhamfu & Wongprom 2015 (Myanmar)

Euscorpiops orioni Kovarík, Kosulic, Stahlavsky, Dongkhamfu & Wongprom 2015 (Thailand)

The article has an updated identification key for the genus.

Abstract:
Euscorpiops artemisae sp. nov. from Myanmar and Euscorpiops orioni sp. nov. from Thailand are described and compared with other species of the genus Euscorpiops Vachon, 1980. A key to the species of Euscorpiops is provided. Sexual dimorphism is present, as males of some species have a narrower pedipalp chela than females, while in other species the shape of the chela is the same in both sexes. Males of both new species have the pedipalp chela very narrow, in the male holotype of E. artemisae sp. nov. the chela length to width ratio is 4.13 and in the male holotype of E. orioni sp. nov. it is 4.58. In addition to morphological analysis, we describe also the karyotype of male holotype and paratype of E. orioni sp. nov. Both analyzed specimens have achiasmatic meiosis and the same number of chromosomes (2n=103) with predominance of acrocentric chromosomes gradually decreasing in size. During the first meiotic division we observed one trivalent in both males. This type of multivalent indicates centric fusion or fissions that may cause the differentiation of the karyotypes within the genus Euscorpiops.

Reference:
Kovarik F, Kosulic O, Stahlavsky F, Pliskova J, Dongkhamfu W, Wongprom P. Two new species of Euscorpiops Vachon, 1980 from Thailand and Myanmar (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae: Scorpiopinae). Annales Zoologici. 2015;65(1):109-22. [Subscritpion required for full text]

Thanks to Gerard Dupre for sending me this article!

Family Euscorpiidae