A new species of Scorpiops from Laos

 

Wilson Lourenco & Eric Ythier has recently described a new species in the genus Scorpiops Peters, 1861 (Scorpiopidae) from Laos.

Scorpiops (Euscorpiops) piceus Lourenco & Ythier, 2022

The authors have kept the genera synonymizations made by Kovarik in in 2020 (all genera except for Parascorpiops Banks, 1928 were synonymized with Scorpiops), but have revalidated some of the ex-genera as subgenera in the current paper. [The information in this paragraph was corrected 13.05.22]

Abstract:
A new species, Scorpiops (Euscorpiops) piceus sp. n., belonging to the family Scorpiopidae Kraepelin, 1905 is described based on one adult female and one juvenile male collected in the Province of Khammouane, Laos. The new species presents most features exhibited by scorpions of the genus Scorpiops subgenus Euscorpiops, and is characterized by a very dark pigmentation overall, a large global size and a distinct trichobothrial pattern. This new species may represent one endemic element for the fauna of Khammouane region. This new taxon represents the 100th described species among the currently recognized species for the genus Scorpiops and the 36th for the subgenus Euscorpiops. Comments are also added on the validity of the generic division of the groups included in the family Scorpiopidae and a number of these are revalidated at the subgeneric level.

Reference:
Lourenco WR, Ythier E. A new species of the genus Scorpiops Peters, 1861, subgenus Euscorpiops Vachon, 1980 from Laos (Scorpiones: Scorpiopidae). Faunitaxys. 2022;10(27):1-9. [Open Access]

Thanks to Gerard Dupre for informing me about this article!

Family Scorpiopidae