Two new species of Urodacus from Western Australia

 

Been awhile since I have seen any taxonomic news from "down under", but now I can report about a recent work by Bruno Buzatto and co-workers where two new species of the genus Urodacus Peters, 1861 (Scorpionidae*) are described from Western Australia.

Urodacus lunatus Buzatoo, Clark, Harvey & Volschenk, 2023

Urodacus uncinus Buzatoo, Clark, Harvey & Volschenk, 2023

The two new species are very similar and can only be separated based on the morphology of their hemispermatophores. I expect that a study of this genus with molecular technology may reveal more hidden species in Australia.

* The placement of the genus Urodacus is unlcear and the current authors have place it in the family Urodacidae, which currently is not used in The Scorpion Files.

Abstract:
Two new species of urodacid scorpion are described from the Pilbara region in Western Australia, where they are both patchily distributed along creek lines in the north-east of the region. Urodacus uncinus sp. nov. and Urodacus lunatus sp. nov. are indistinguishable based on external morphology: adults are medium-sized, yellow burrowing scorpions with remarkable sexual dimorphism in the, telson, in which males have a uniquely swollen vesicle and an aculeus that is more strongly curved than other known species of Urodacus. The species are superficially similar to Urodacus similis L.E. Koch, 1977 and Urodacus yaschenkoi Birula, 1903 in the morphology of the first four metasomal segments, which are extremely short and not much longer than high. The two new species canonly be discerned from each other based on the morphology of their hemispermatophores, which highlights the extremely conserved morphology of species in the genus and suggests that many new species await description with careful examination of their genitalia.

Reference:
Buzatto B, Clark H, Harvey M, Volschenk E. Two new species of burrowing scorpions Urodacus (Scorpiones: Urodacidae) from the Pilbara region of Western Australia with identical external morphology. Aust J Zool. [Open Access]

Family Scorpionidae