Mesobuthus phillipsi (Pocock, 1889) Pocock, 1889

Mirshamsi, Omid, Sari, Alireza, Elahi, Elahe & Hosseinie, Shidokht, 2011, Mesobuthus eupeus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Iran: A polytypic species complex, Zootaxa 2929, pp. 1-21 : 15-18

Mesobuthus phillipsi (Pocock, 1889) stat. nov.

Fig. 36–43 , Table 1 & 2

Buthus phillipsi Pocock, 1889b: 24 ; Buthus phillipsi: Kraepelin, 1899: 24 ; Birula, 1905: 131; Borelli, 1915: 460; Werner, 1916: 80; Lampe, 1918: 191; Mesobuthus phillipsi: Vachon, 1950: 153 (1952: 325) ; Pérez Minocci, 1974: 25.

Buthus (Buthus) eupeus phillipsi: Birula, 1917: 228 ; Mesobuthus eupeus phillipsi: Vachon, 1959: 148 ; Vachon, 1966: 213; Habibi, 1971: 44; Farzanpay, 1986: 334; Fet, 1994: 527; Kovařík, 1997a: 49; Kovařík, 1998: 114; Fet & Lowe, 2000: 175; Mesobuthus eupeus phillipsii: Farzanpay, 1987: 150 ; Farzanpay, 1988: 38; Navidpour et al., 2008a: 11, figs. 22, 81–84; Navidpour et al., 2008b: 13, figs. 2–3, 5, 21–22, 49–52; Navidpour et al., 2008c: 11, figs. 4, 7–9, 37–40; Navidpour et al., 2008d: 5, figs. 2–3, 5–9, 35–38; Pirali-Kheirabadi et al., 2009: 6, figs. 5, 10, 32–35; Mesobuthus eupeus: Akbari, 2007: 76 ; Buthus hottentotta: Kraepelin, 1891: 185 (in part?).

Material examined. Fars Province: 1Ƥ13, Kenar Taprh- Kazeroon road, 29.580°N, 51.508°E, 16 May 2008, leg. G.M. Kashani (ZUTC-arach-1123, 1124); 3Ƥ,13, Abadeh, Abadeh-Samirom road, 27 August 2008, leg. S. Navidpour (RRLS-Fa-858); 4Ƥ13, Shiraz-Abadeh road, Saadat Shahr, Pasargad, 28 August 2008, leg. S. Navidpour (RRLS-Fa-859). Khuzestan Province: 2Ƥ,23, Ahvaz–Masjedsoleyman road, Miah vill., 31°46'31"N 49°06'01"E, 48 m a.s.l., IX.2007, leg. S. Navidpour (RRLS-A-Ma-811), 13, Shooshtar- Ahwaz road, Arab Hasan vill., 11 December 2007, leg. S. Navidpour (RRLS-Sh-A2); 3Ƥ, Hendijan, Cham Tang vill., 11 December 2007, leg. S. Navidpour (RRLS-He-833); 1Ƥ13, Behbahan, 36°37ˏ01˝ N, 50°08ˏ53˝E, 342 m a.s.l., 22 July 2008, leg. S.Navidpour (RRLS-Beh-839); Bushehr Province: 23,2Ƥ, Tangestan, Ahram, 28°51'45"N 51°20'50"E, 123 m a.s.l., November 2007, leg. Masihipour, Bahrani & Habibzadeh (RRLS- Bu-36); 33,3Ƥ, Omidiyeh to Genaveh road, 30°13'42"N 50°12'01"E, 128 m a.s.l., November 2007, leg. Navidpour, Masihipour & Tofigh (RRLS-B-Bi805).

Type locality and repository. Iran, Bushehr Province, Bushir (now Bushehr); BMNH.

The type specimens of Buthus phillipsi Pocock deposited in BMNH were not available for examination during this study, but several specimens were examined from type locality.

Due to lack of adequate data on M. phillipsi and absence of illustrations, here this taxon is described in full for newly erected M. phillipsi including illustrations of diagnostic characters.

Diagnosis. Medium-sized buthids, adults 37–61 mm in total length; with general yellow coloration, with brownish yellow mesosoma, yellowish chela and pale yellow legs, ventral surface paler than dorsal; with five distinct longitudinal dark markings on tergites; M. phillipsi is distinguished from M. eupeus by the following features: Uniting central and posterior median carinae on the one or both sides of prosoma; dorsal surface of pedipalp femur finely granular; dorsomedian carinae of patella distinct; weakly developed ventral carinae on metasomal segments II and III with small granules; short and pointed basal denticles of ventrolateral carinae of metasomal segments V; more narrower metasomal segments; short aculeus; hairy metasomal segments and five longitudinal dark stripes on tergites (lacking in some specimens).

Description. Based on both males and females.

Carapace ( Fig. 36 ): Carapace trapezoid-shaped, wider than long, Ca_L/Ca_Pw: 0.85–0.94(0.89), Ca_L/ Ca_Aw: 1.40–1.49 (1.45); Ca-Aw/Ca_Pw: 0.57–0.65 (0.61); anterior margin of prosoma and median ocular carinae black; ocular tubercle located on anterior half of prosoma, X/ Y: 0.67–0.77(0.73); intercarinal space of prosoma coarsely granular, prosomal carination and lyra-shaped configuration weakly developed, central median and posterior median carinae without gap at their junction in one or both sides.

Mesosoma ( Fig. 37 & 38 ): Tergites I–VI tricarinate; lateral and median carinae on tergites I and II weakly developed; intercarinal spaces of tergites finely granular; distal tip of pectine reaching distal end of coxa IV in females, and reaching midpoint of trochanter IV in males, with three marginal lamellae and 8–9 median lamellae, pectinal tooth count 22–26 in females and 27–30 in males.

Pedipalps ( Fig. 39 & 40 ): Femur pentacarinate, all carinae strongly granular, dorsal surface coarsely granular. Patella tetracarinate, with dorsomedian carinae moderately developed. Fixed and movable fingers of pedipalp with strongly developed scalloping in males, dentate margins of fixed and movable fingers with 10 and 11 oblique rows of granules, respectively.

Metasoma ( Fig. 41–43 ): Metasomal segment I decacarinate; Segments II–IV octocarinate; dorsolateral and lateral supramedian carinae moderately serrate; lateral inframedian carinae incomplete, weakly developed and present on posterior half of segments II and III; Ventrolateral carinae moderate, crenulated; ventral carinae on second and third metasomal segments weakly developed with small denticles, the size of denticles slightly increasing posteriorly especially in third metasomal segment, and with a small distal granule; denticles of ventrolateral carinae of the fifth metasomal segment slightly increasing in size posteriorly with distal triangular and pointed denticles; Metasomal segments hairy, each segment with a series of widely separated long hairs arranged in longitudinal rows along the carinae, intercarinal space of metasomal segments smooth, metasomal segments II–IV longer than height, MtII_L/H: 1.14–1.38(1.26), MtIII_L/H: 1.18–1.43(1.31), MtIV_L/H: 1.46–1.69(1.60); lateral anal arch of the fifth metasomal segment with three distinct teeth on both sides, some specimens with an additional minor denticle in one side, ventral arch with several reduced denticles.

Telson: Vesicle of telson inflated and significantly longer than short curved aculeus and wider than fifth metasomal segment.

Trichobotriotax y: Orthobothriotaxic type Ab (as described and illustrated for M. eupeus , Fig. 35 ).

Figures

FIGURE 35. Trichobothriotaxy and the number of trichobothria on each segment of pedipalps in M. eupeus. The name and abbreviation of trichobothria after Vachon (1974). The number of trichobothria on each side of pedipalp segments are presented in parentheses.

FIGURES 36 – 43. Female Mesobuthus phillipsi under UV fluorescence collected from Khuzestan Province, Southwest of Iran. 36) prosoma; 37) tergites; 38) right pectine; 39) dorsal aspect of pedipalp femur; 40) dorsal aspect pedipalp patella; 41) lateral aspect of metasomal segment V and telson; 42) ventral aspect of metasomal segment V and telson; 43) lateral aspect of metasomal segments II and III. White circles indicate the position of trichobothria. Scale bar: 29, 30, 31: 1 mm; 32, 33: 0.78 mm; 34, 35: 1.5 mm; 36: 1.36 mm.