Prakrit Jain and co-workers recently described a new species of Paruroctonus Werner, 1934 (Vaejovidae) from lowland, alkali-sink habitats in the Tulare Basin in California, USA.
Paruroctonus tulare Jain, Forbes, Gorneau & Esposito, 2023
The article provides detailed information about morphology, distribution, ecology and conservational status. Regarding the latter, this species inhabits a specialized habitat and its status is probably impacted by human activities like land conversion for agriculture and urban development. In addition, invasive European grasses seem to negatively impact on the species distribution and numbers.
Abstract:
Herein a new species of Paruroctonus Werner, 1934 is described from alkali-sink habitats in the San Joaquin Desert of central California, Paruroctonus tulare sp. nov. It can be differentiated from other Paruroctonus by a combination of morphological features including scalloped pedipalp fingers in males, specific setal counts and morphometric ratios, and specific patterns of fuscous pigmentation. It also inhabits a unique distribution allopatric with all other Paruroctonus species except P. variabilis Hjelle, 1982. Photographs of a large series of live P. tulare sp. nov. from across their range and detailed images of several morphological features are provided, their distribution is modeled, a haplotype network is presented, and details about their habitat, ecology, and conservation are discussed.
Reference:
Jain P, Forbes H, Gorneau JA, Esposito LA. A new species of alkali-sink Paruroctonus Werner, 1934 (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae) from California’s San Joaquin Valley. ZooKeys. 2023(1185):199-239. [Open Access]
Thanks to Matt Simon for informing me about the new species.
No comments:
Post a Comment