A review of Iberian scorpions with six new Buthus species from southern Spain

 

Happy New Year!

Rolando Teruel and Carlos Turiel have recently publish the first part of their 10 year long study of the Buthus Leach, 1815 populations in Europa (Buthidae). In the current article they describe six new species from southern Spain and they confirm the validity of the four species previously described from the Iberian Peninsula. The distribution of the 10 species are given, with some significant reducations in the distribution of some of the "old" species.

Buthus alacanti Teruel & Turiel, 2020

Buthus baeticus Teruel & Turiel, 2020

Buthus delafuentei Teruel & Turiel, 2020

Buthus garcialorcai Teruel & Turiel, 2020

Buthus manchego Teruel & Turiel, 2020

Buthus serrano Teruel & Turiel, 2020

I paid attention to one statement in this article that I think is important to remember for us amaetur taxonomists. Some of the Iberian Buthus species cannot be identified with certainty without having adult specimens of both male and females. For example, the females of the non-related species B. elongatus and B. montanus are almost impossible to separate from each other, while the males are very different. Having a location will of course help us on the way to an identification ,but if you lack this, an identification of a single individual will be very difficult.

The authors will soon publish part two of their study adding more species from western Europe and present an identification key and a picture atlas that will help in identifying all the new species.

Abstract:
The genus Buthus Leach, 1815 is taxonomically revised for the Iberian Peninsula. We examined 291 specimens from 48 localities, including topotypes of the four currently recognised species: Buthus elongatus Rossi, 2012, Buthus ibericus Lourenco & Vachon, 2004, Buthus montanus Lourenco & Vachon, 2004 and Buthus occitanus (Amoreux, 1789). In this first contribution, all of them are confirmed as valid and redescribed in detail and their geographic distribution is clarified. Also, Buthus europaeus tridentatus Franganillo, 1918 is confirmed as a junior synonym of Buthus occitanus and neotypes are designated for both taxa to stabilise the nomeclature. Finally, six new species are described from southern Spain. The Western European diversity of Buthus reaches now 10 species, all of them being endemics and mostly having a limited geographic range.

Reference:
Teruel R, Turiel C. The genus Buthus Leach 1815 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) in the Iberian Peninsula. Part 1: Four redescriptions and six new species. Revista Iberica de Arachnologia. 2020(37):3-60. [No full text available]

Thanks to Rolando for sending me this interesting article!

Family Buthidae