Alloscorpiops Vachon, 1980

Kovařík, František, Soleglad, Michael E. & Košulič, Ondřej, 2013, Alloscorpiops wongpromi sp. n. from Thailand and Laos (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae: Scorpiopinae), Euscorpius 160 (160), pp. 1-12 : 1-2

Alloscorpiops Vachon, 1980

( Figs. 1–24)

Scorpiops (Alloscorpiops) Vachon, 1980: 151 ; Bastawade, 1997: 104.

Alloscorpiops: Stockwell, 1989: 120 ; Sissom, 1990: 114; Kovařík, 1998: 141; Lourenço, 1998: 246; Fet, 2000: 487; Kovařík, 2000: 155; Soleglad & Sissom, 2001: 49, 93, figs. 99, 103, 117; Kovařík, 2009: 32; Kovařík, 2013: 1 ; Lourenço, 2013: 52.

= Alloscorpiops (Laoscorpiops) Lourenço, 2013: 52 . Syn. n.

Type species: Scorpiops anthracinus Simon, 1887 .

DIAGNOSIS. Total length 37–72 mm. First to fourth metasomal segments with paired, parallel ventral median carinae. Pair median eyes and three pairs of lateral eyes present. Movable fingers of pedipalps with denticles in two rows. Patella of pedipalp with 23–37 external and 15–22 ventral trichobothria. Chela of pedipalp with 10– 14 ventral trichobothria, of which one or two proximal accessory trichobothria can occur on the external surface. External surface of chela manus with Db, 5 Et, Est, Esb and 3 Eb trichobothria. Trichobothrium Eb 3 on external surface of chela is located between trichobothria Dt and Est.

COMMENTS. Lourenço’s (2013: 52) discussion of the trichobothrial pattern of A. calmonti confused some important issues concerning nomenclature and homology. As discussed elsewhere, the genus Alloscorpiops is uniquely diagnosed in Scorpiopinae by the occurrence of neobothriotaxy on the ventral surface of the chelal palm. A. calmonti , with a large number of ventral trichobothria, exhibits one or two additional accessory trichobothria that occur on the extreme external/ventral area of the palm, inline with the other ventral trichobothria. Lourenço argued that these trichobothria were part of the external basal (Eb) series, instead of considering them an extension of the neobothriotaxy present on the ventral surface of the palm. We consider this counterintuitive: why suggest that neobothriotaxy was derived independently on two surfaces when it is a simpler explanation to consider it a continuation of the ventral series; i. e., additional accessory trichobothria? We might point out that the occurrence of ventral trichobothria on the external surface (orthobothriotaxic in this case, V 4) is known in several other genera in family Euscorpiidae , such as Euscorpius , Megacormus , Plesiochactas , Chactopsis , and even Troglocormus , a member of Troglocormini, a sister tribe to Alloscorpiops (see Soleglad & Sissom, 2001: figs. 88–93). In addition, we see that one of the accessory trichobothria designated as “ Eb ” by Lourenço (2013) is located on the ventroexternal carina of the palm, further suggesting it is a continuation of the ventral series. Whether one chooses to consider these two trichobothria as a continuation of the ventral series (our choice), or trichobothria belonging to the external basal series (unlikely in our opinion), these are accessory trichobothria, i.e., a product of neobothriotaxy. Unfortunately, which is a more serious matter, Lourenço sequentially renumbered the Eb series to include these two new trichobothria, and in doing so, contradicted the homology carefully established by Vachon (1974) for the entire Type C pattern. The two new accessory trichobothria are labeled Eb 1 and Eb 2, and consequently, the orthobothriotaxic trichobothria Eb 1 –Eb 3 become Eb 3 –Eb 5! Clearly, what Lourenço (2013) designated as Eb 5 is Eb 3, a trichobothrium whose location on the palm is an important character in diagnosing the genera of Scorpiopinae (see Soleglad & Sissom, 2001: figs. 112– 118).

The establishment of subgenus Laoscorpiops by Lourenço was based solely on this trichobothrial pattern and its interpreted homology. However, as shown above, this homology is a misinterpretation (that resulted from combining orthobothriotaxic and accessory trichobothria and sequentially renumbering them), which ignores previously established homologies. Therefore, we consider Laoscorpiops an invalid taxon, and a junior synonym of Alloscorpiops .