Compsobuthus Vachon, 1949

Kovařík, František, 2018, Notes on the genera Buthacus Compsobuthus and Lanzatus with several synonymies and corrections of published characters (Scorpiones Buthidae), Euscorpius 269, pp. 1-12 : 4-5

Compsobuthus Vachon, 1949

( Figs. 1–9)

TYPE SPECIES. Buthus acutecarinatus Simon, 1882 .

DIAGNOSIS. Total length 20–55 mm; dorsal trichobothria of femur arranged in beta -configuration; trichobothrium db on chela of pedipalp basal to est; trichobothrium eb located on fixed finger of chela; pectines with fulcra; pectinal teeth number 9–34; tibial spurs present on third and fourth legs; cheliceral fixed finger with two ventral denticles; carapace with distinct carinae; central lateral and posterior lateral carinae of carapace connected to form continuous linear series of granules extending to posterior margin; carapace in lateral view with entire dorsal surface horizontal or nearly so; dentate margin of movable finger of pedipalp with 8–14 rows of granules, each row equipped with one internal accessory granule, and with ( C. werneri group) or without ( C. acutecarinatus group) one external accessory granule, 4 terminal and one basal terminal granules present; tergites I– VI of mesosoma bear three carinae projecting beyond posterior margin as distinct spiniform processes.

COMMENTS. Lourenço described 12 species in the genus Compsobuthus . The types of 5 of these species are deposited in ZMUH and were loaned for this study ( Compsobuthus andresi Lourenço, 2004 , C. simoni Lourenço, 1999 , C. tassili Lourenço, 2010 , C. tofti Lourenço, 2001 , and C. williamsi Lourenço, 1999 ). The types of 7 other Compsobuthus species described by Lourenço are deposited in MNHN which refused to loan them to the author several years ago. We can only hope that in future MNHN will change their policy and allow outside scientists to examine the types and independently evaluate the taxonomic positions of these species. As will be shown here, descriptions of the species whose types are deposited in ZMUH were usually based on erroneous characters, so it is questionable whether the descriptions of species whose types are lodged in MNHN are any more reliable.

Figs. 1a–5a show that none of the ZMUH types were described correctly and that all figures of dentition of pedipalp chela movable fingers published by Lourenço are in error. All Compsobuthus species have a pedipalp chela movable finger with 4 terminal granules and one basal terminal granule (five in total) as correctly shown only in Fig. 1a. Other figures shown by Lourenço show the number of granules 4, 12, 9, and 8 incorrectly. All Compsobuthus species have a pedipalp chela movable finger with internal granules which are also present in all these types but are completely omitted in Figs. 1a– 3a, 5a. In addition, in Figures 3a and 5a there are also external granules that were ignored. Even more striking is that, for example, in the description C. williamsi Lourenço , on p. 91 it is written: " Movable finger with 9 almost linear rows of granules, without internal or external accessory granules ", and this was used as a key character for comparison with other species (see figs. 1– 3 in Lourenço, 1999: 86). However, in Fig. 1b we can see that in reality the type of C. williamsi does in fact have internal granules. Curiously, Figs. 1a and 2a are virtually identical (see also comparison in Fig. 6) in spite of Fig. 2a (holotype of C. andresi from India) being published in 2004 ( Lourenço, 2004 a) whereas Fig. 1a (holotype of C. williamsi from " Morocco ") was published in 1999. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these suspiciously duplicated figures do not accurately portray the finger dentitions of either C. andresi or C. williamsi .