Orthochirus olivaceus (Karsch, 1881)

Siyam, Manal, Dunlop, Jason A., Kovarik, Frantisek & Mohammad, Abubakr, 2023, Additions to the distribution of Sudanese scorpions, Zoosystematics and Evolution 99 (1), pp. 45-53 : 45

Orthochirus olivaceus (Karsch, 1881)

Figure 2e

Material examined.

1♂ 1♀; SNHMK 2.535, SNHMK 2.536, River Nile State, El-Manaseer, Birti (18°58'03.7"N, 32°21'32.5"E, 306 m a.s.l) leg. M. Bakheet, 11.08.2019. det. F. Kovařík. and M. Siyam. 1♂; ZMB 49428 , Northern State, Wadi El-Ga’ab, (19°27'47.5"N, 30°15'23.3"E, 219 m a.s.l), 15.09.2019, leg. I, Al-Khidir, det. F. Kovařík. 1♀ SNHM 2.549, Northern State, El Madeqeen - Kouya (20°20'25.512"N, 30°24'17.748"E, 685 m a.s.l), 10.08.2021, leg. H. Marzoug, det. M. Siyam. 1♀; ZMB 48708 , The Republic of Sudan, Kassala State, Near Jebel Taka (15°26'01.0"N, 36°25'19.0"E, 510 m a.s.l), leg. M. Siyam, 04.10.2011, det. F. Kovařík.

Description.

Total body length (3-5 cm). General coloration black. Prosoma black with granules. Mesosoma black with thickly granulated tergites. Metasoma black, thick and granulated. Telson entirely black. Legs pale yellow. Pedipalps bicoloured; femur and patella dark brown, manus long and yellow. Pectines with 15-20 teeth in females and 15 teeth in males.

Remarks.

Karsch (1892) first recognised the genus Orthochirus , but its constituent taxa remained neglected for many years. Part of the problem was that the original locality for the type species of the genus given by Karsch (1881), Sicily in Italy, is almost certainly erroneous (discussed by Kovařík et al. 2020) and Orthochirus olivaceus is, in fact, a North African scorpion. This species was described for the first time in Sudan by Kovařík et al. (2020) from Wadi Halfa in and Wadi El-Ga‘ab (both Northern State). Here we offer three new localities and two states: El-Manaseer, Birti (River Nile State), Kassala (Kassala State) and El Madeqeen - Kouya (Northern State).

Genus Parabuthus Pocock, 1890

Figures

Figure 2. Habitus photographs of several Sudanese scorpion species, all in the family Buthidae, for which we can offer new distribution data here. a. Androctonus amoreuxi (Audouin, 1826); b. Buthacus leptochelys (Ehrenberg, 1829); c. Compsobuthus werneri (Birula, 1908); d. Leiurus quinquestriatus (Ehrenberg, 1829); e. Orthochirus olivaceus (Karsch, 1881); f. Parabuthus abyssinicus (Pocock, 1901). Of these, A. amoreuxi, L. quinquestriatus and P. abyssinicus have a potent venom and are regarded as medically significant.