Pandinurus intermedius (Borelli, 1919)

Kovařík, František, Lowe, Graeme & Elmi, Hassan Sh Abdirahman, 2020, Scorpions of the Horn of Africa (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Part XXV. Description of Pandinurus awalei sp. n. and the male of Pandiborellius somalilandus (Kovařík, 2012), with remarks on recent synonymies (Scorpionidae: Pandininae), Euscorpius 322, pp. 1-21 : 18

Taxonomic position of Pandinurus intermedius (Borelli, 1919)

Prendini & Loria (2020: 442) formally synonymized Pandinus intermedius Borelli, 1919 under Pandinus citernii Borelli, 1919 (both now in the genus Pandinurus ), “ two Ethiopian species of Pandinurus , described from the same type locality ”, without explanation of their taxonomic act. In their paragraph, the authors cited only “ unpublished data ”. They did not address previously proposed diagnostic characters, in particular chelal trichobothrium ea, which is present in P. intermedius and absent in P. citernii , and ignored other morphological characters published in KovařÍk et al. (2017c). They characterized these as “Ethiopian” species, although the originally cited type localities are actually located in Somalia. In fact, two separate areas of distribution in Ethiopia were indeed confirmed by KovařÍk et al. (2017c). However, the co-occurrence of both species at “the same type locality” in Somalia had not been confirmed. Borelli (1919) studied specimens collected by Carlo Citerni, and there is a significant possibility that Citerni did not personally collect these specimens and assign locality labels himself. It has been repeatedly documented that old specimens in Italian museums are labelled with imprecise localities, and their true geographic distributions need to be independently confirmed (see also KovařÍk et al, 2019: 61). The confirmed distributions of both the species in Ethiopia, as well as their unconfirmed type locality in Somalia, are mapped in Fig. 83 . In addition, recent DNA and chromosomal analysis further supports the view that both are separate and valid species. For example, P. intermedius has a constant number of chromosomes of 2n=110, whereas P. citernii has a different and constant number of chromosomes of 2n=120 ( ŠtundlovÁ, 2019). We therefore reinstate Pandinurus intermedius (Borelli, 1919) as a valid species distinct from P. citernii (Borelli, 1919) .

Figures

Figure 83. Map showing confirmed distribution of Pandinurus spp.