Rhopalurus caribensis Teruel et Roncallo, 2008

Teruel, Rolando & Roncallo, César A., 2010, Rare or poorly known scorpions from Colombia. IV. Additions, synonymies and new records (Scorpiones: Buthidae, Scorpionidae), Euscorpius 105 (105), pp. 1-15 : 2-4

Rhopalurus caribensis Teruel et Roncallo, 2008

Figs. 2 , 11 , Tab. 1

Rhopalurus caribensis Teruel & Roncallo, 2008a: 1–11 , figs. 1–7, tabs. 1–2; Rojas-Runjaic & Becerra, 2008: 461, 464–466, fig. 1.

Diagnosis (emended): species of moderately small size (males 38–40 mm, female 43–55 mm) for the genus. Body pale yellow to light orange brown, with metasomal segment V moderately infuscate and a diffuse pattern of gray spots over carapace and tergites (confluent and darker in earlier juveniles); metasoma ventrally with all carinae infuscate and a thin, dark line between the ventrosubmedian carinae. Pedipalp chelae robust in both sexes, more conspicuously in males; fingers without basal lobe/notch combination, but with subtle scallop in adult males; fingers with eight principal rows of granules, flanked by a few supernumerary granules. Sternite III and pectines with stridulatory apparatus greatly reduced; sternite V without smooth patch. Metasoma distally incrassate on both sexes, much more conspicuously in males; telson vesicle small, subaculear tubercle vestigial, blunt and far removed from the base of aculeus. Pectinal tooth count 22–25 (mode 24) in males, 19–23 (mode 21) in females.

New Records: COLOMBIA: La Guajira Department, Palomino, at Magdalena border, September 2008, leg. C. A. Roncallo, 1♀ (Sco-0419); Ranchería El Pasito, 3 km northeast of Riohacha, 5 December 2008, leg. J. Zubiria, 1♀ (Sco-0415), Riohacha downtown, 27 September 2008, leg. J. Brito; 1 juvenile (Sco-0417), Riohacha, Colegio Sagrado Corazón, km 1 Maicao road, 16 July 2008, leg. C. A. Roncallo, 2 juveniles (Sco- 0394); Riohacha, 7 km beyond Colegio Sagrado Corazón, path to Rancherías river , 11 February 2009, leg. C. A. Roncallo, 1 juvenile (Sco-0416); Riohacha, Colegio James Dobson, km 5.4 Maicao road, August 2009, leg. C. A. Roncallo, 1 juvenile (Sco-0418); Ranchería Irrujunai, km 12 El Pájaro path, on Maicao road, 2 January 2008, leg. C. A. Roncallo, 1♂, 3♀♀, 1 juvenile (Sco-0393) . VENEZUELA: Zulia State, Mara Municipality, Cuatro Bocas, La Sierrita , June 1998, 1♂ (Sco-0328) .

Remarks: all specimens recorded herein were obtained under different conditions, but always in arid to desert areas, just as for the types (Teruel & Roncallo, 2008a). The individuals from Irrujunai were all found packed together inside a tree hole, and the one from Rancherías river was found under a rock in a secondary dry forest, syntopically with Tarsoporosus macuira Teruel et Roncallo 2007 . The remaining specimens were all captured in places associated with human environments: inside crevices of benches and walls in schoolyards (three specimens from Riohacha), and inside inhabited houses (one each from El Pasito and Riohacha), syntopically with Centruroides margaritatus and T. macuira .

The additional specimens now available allow to assess intraspecific variability in R. caribensis , and to update its diagnosis. For example, the specimens from Irrujunai are basically light orange-brown with the dark pattern less marked, and thus, the scorpions look essentially ferrugineus to unaided eye. Also, one female from Irrujunai is smaller (43 mm), and the ones from Palomino and El Pasito are larger (52 and 55 mm, respectively) than those of the type series (48–50 mm).

On the other hand, the undetermined male from Zulia associated by Teruel & Roncallo (2008a: 8) to R. caribensis was re-examined and compared to the additional samples, and it was confirmed to belong to this species (see above, in New Records).

Figures

Figure 2: Adult male and female of Rhopalurus caribensis from Ranchería Irrujunai, entire dorsal view.

Figures 10–11: 10 (top). Geographical distribution of Centruroides margaritatus in Caribbean Colombia (only confirmed records included). 11 (bottom). Geographical distribution of Rhopalurus caribensis: previous records (black squares), new records (white squares).