Scorpions of the Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands are famous for their animals and their impact on our knowledge on animal evolution. But there are also scorpions present on most of the islands in the Galapagos archipelago. Baert & Mahnert have recently published a paper on the scorpion (and other non-spider) fauna of the islands.

Two species are present: Centruroides exsul (Meise, 1934) (Buthidae) and Hadruroides galapagoensis Maury 1975 (Carabotonidae).

Abstract:
The geographic and ecological distribution of the arachnid species belonging to the Amblypygi (Charinus insularis Banks, 1902), the Opiliones (Galanomma microphthalma Juberthie, 1970), the Schizomida (Schizomus portoricensis (Chamberlin, 1922)), the Scorpiones (Centruroides exsul (Meise, 1934) and Hadruroides galapagoensis Maury, 1975), the Solifugae (Neocleobis solitarius (Banks, 1902)) and 25 species of Pseudoscorpiones from the Galàpagos are described. Only the schizomid Schizomus portoricensis and the pseudoscorpions Paratemnoides nidificator (Balzan, 1888), Lechytia chthoniiformis (Balzan, 1887), Aphelolpium cayanum Muchmore, 1979, and Aphelolpium longidigitatum (Ellingsen, 1910) occur also on the American mainland. The pseudoscorpion Withius piger (Simon,1878) is a cosmopolite species.

Reference:
Baert L, Mahnert V. The distribution of the non‐araneae and non‐acari arachnids of Galápagos. Belgian Journal of Entomology. 2015;28:1-76. [Open Access]

Thanks to Rolando Teruel for sending me this article!