Urodacus fossor

Monod, Lionel, Duperre, Nadine & Harms, Danilo, 2019, An annotated catalogue of the scorpion types (Arachnida, Scorpiones) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg. Part I: Parvorder Iurida Soleglad & Fet, 2003, Evolutionary Systematics 3 (2), pp. 109-200 : 109

Urodacus fossor Fig. 64 C–D

Urodacus fossor Kraepelin, 1916: 36-39, fig. 6-7

Current senior synonym.

Urodacus yaschenkoi (Birula, 1903) [synonymized by L. E. Koch 1977: 292]

Syntype.

♀ (ZMH-A0000943), Australia, Streeters Station, near Broome [17°56 ’25” S, 122°38 ’25” E], NW Australia, ex. 1912, Eric Mjöberg leg. (6/811, de dagbokon [the diary]).

Remarks.

Kraepelin (1916) reported two females, one from Broome and one from Streeters Station. The present specimen was examined and designated as syntype by L. E. Koch (1977). The second specimen cannot be found in the ZMH collection and is possibly housed in the Natural History Museum in Stockholm. Kraepelin also mentioned in the original description that these scorpions were found in burrows which are four feet deep, have a spiraling shape and a half-moon cross-section, hence their name.

Remarks on collector.

Eric Georg Mjöberg (1882-1938) was a Swedish zoologist and ethnographer who led the first Swedish scientific expeditions to Australia in the early 1900s ( Mjöberg 1915; Musgrave 1932). Mjöberg travelled to Australia again in 1912-1913, exploring the Queensland Wet Tropics. From 1920 onwards, he established himself in Indonesia, working as chief of the Zoological Department for the Deli Experimental Station (Medan, Sumatra) from 1919 to 1922, then as curator of the Sarawak State Museum (Borneo) from 1922 to 1924, finally leading an expedition to Central Borneo in 1925-1926.

Figures

Figure 64. Urodacus bicolor Werner, 1936 [= Urodacus novaehollandiae Peters, 1861], female syntype (A-B). Urodacus fossor Kraepelin, 1916 [= Urodacus yaschenkoi (Birula, 1903)], female syntype (C-D): A, C dorsal aspect of habitus B, D ventral aspect of habitus. Scale bars: 10 mm.