Buthus zeylensis Pocock, 1900

Kovařík, František, Šťáhlavský, František & Elmi, Hassan Sh Abdirahman, 2020, Scorpions of the Horn of Africa (Arachnida Scorpiones) Part XXIII Buthus (Buthidae), with description of two new species, Euscorpius 307, pp. 1-32 : 27-31

Buthus zeylensis Pocock, 1900 , stat. n.

( Figures 101 , 140–175 , 184–185, 190 , 194, 207–209 , 210,

Tables 2–3 )

Buthus occitanus zeylensis Pocock, 1900: 56–57 .

Buthus occitanus berberensis (in part): Levy & Amitai, 1980: 16, 21; Fet & Lowe, 2000: 95 (complete references list until 1998).

Buthus berberensis: Lourenço, 2008: 46 ; Sousa et al., 2017: 38 (in part).

TYPE LOCALITY AND TYPE REPOSITORY. Somaliland, Zeyla; BMNH.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. Somaliland, Gerissa, 10°36'01"N 43°26'07"E, 245 m a. s. l. (Locality No. 19SH = 17ST), 11.- 12.IX.2017, 22♂ 7♀ 21juvs. (Nos. 1294, 1295, 1297), FKCP, 1♂ 1♀, RTOC, 3.VII.2019, 8♂ 3♀ 12juvs. (No. 1686), FKCP, leg. F. KovařÍk .

DIAGNOSIS. Total length 37–54 mm. Base color yellow dark pattern reduced; telson brown; chelicerae pale yellow without reticulation. Pedipalp movable fingers bear 10–11 rows of granules, with 12 outer and inner denticles and fixed finger with 10–11 outer and inner denticles. Chela of pedipalp narrower in male, its length to width ratio 3.4–3.6 in females and 4.1–4.3 in males. Telson bulbous, with aculeus shorter than vesicle. Pectinal teeth number 25–29 in females and 28–35 in males.

COMMENTS. Levy & Amitai (1980: 21) synonymized Buthus occitanus zeylensis Pocock, 1900 with Buthus occitanus berberensis Pocock, 1900 . They argued that “examination of Pocock´s types and of additional material from Somalia showed that these two forms are in fact the two sexes of the same subspecies, the first the male, the second the female.” We studied in detail a large collection of Somaliland specimens collected during expeditions of 2011–2019; this study, including cytogenetic and DNA analysis, confirmed that these two taxa are valid species. Here, we restore Buthus occitanus zeylensis Pocock, 1900 from synonymy and elevate it to species rank.

COMMENTS ON LOCALITIES AND LIFE STRATEGY. In 2019, two of us (FK, HE) visited the city of Zeyla, the type locality of Buthus zeylensis Pocock, 1900 . It is an extremely hot place, with heavily salted soils. We collected scorpions several km from the city (11°19'31.2"N 43°22'16.9"E) and found there Hottentotta polystictus (Pocock, 1896) , Microbuthus litoralis (Pavesi, 1885) (first record for Somaliland), Orthochirus afar KovařÍk et Lowe, 2016 and Parabuthus granimanus Pocock, 1895 (topotypes) but no Buthus specimens. Buthus zeylensis is common in Gerissa, a very hot, sandy semidesert area ( Fig. 101 ) where we recorded also H. polystictus , O. afar , and P. granimanus , but also Compsobuthus somalilandus KovařÍk, 2012 , Gint gubanensis KovařÍk et al., 2018 (type locality), and Neobuthus gubanensis KovařÍk et al., 2018 (type locality).

Figures

Figures 100–101: Localities. Figure 100. Buthus pococki sp. n., type locality (19SC). Figure 101. B. zeylensis, locality 19SH.

Figures 140–143: Buthus zeylensis from locality 19SH. Figures 140–141. Male in dorsal (140) and ventral (141) views. Figures 142–143. Female in dorsal (142) and ventral (143) views. Scale bar: 10 mm.

Figures 144–151: Buthus zeylensis from locality 19SH. Figures 144, 146–148. Male, telson lateral (144), and metasoma and telson lateral (146), dorsal (147), and ventral (148) views. Figures 145, 149–151. Female, telson lateral (145), and metasoma and telson lateral (149), dorsal (150), and ventral (151) views. Scale bar: 10 mm (146–151).

Figures 152–167: Buthus zeylensis from locality 19SH, pedipalp segments. Figures 152–161. Male. Chela dorsal (152), external (153) and ventral (154) views. Patella dorsal (155), external (156) and ventral (157) views. Trochanter and femur dorsal (158) and ventral (159) views. Movable (160) and fixed (161) finger dentition. Trichobothrial pattern is indicated by white circles (152–156, 158). Figures 162–167. Female. Chela dorsal (162), external (163) and ventral (164) views. Patella dorsal (165), external (166) and ventral (167) views.

Figures 168–175: Buthus zeylensis from locality 19SH. Figures 168, 170, 172–175. Male, carapace and tergites I–IV (168), coxosternal area and sternites (170), left legs I–IV, retrolateral aspect (172–175 respectively). Figures 169, 171. Female, carapace and tergites I–III (169), coxosternal area and sternites III–VI (171).

Figures 176–190: Comparison of pdipalp chela (176, 178, 180, 182, 184), pedipalp patella (177, 179, 181, 183, 185), and telson (186–190) of males of Buthus. Figures 176–177, 186. B. awashensis, holotype. Figures 178–179, 187. B. berberensis from locality 19SO. Figures 180–181, 188. B. pococki sp. n., holotype. Figures 182–183, 189. B. somalilandus sp. n., holotype. Figures 184–185, 190. B. zeylensis from locality 19SH.

Figures 195–209: Male mitotic metaphases (195, 198, 201, 204, 207), postpachytenes (196, 199, 202, 205, 208) and ideograms (197, 200, 203, 206, 206) (y axis - % of the diploid chromosome length, dark grey marks chromosomes in multivalent association) of Buthus species from the Horn of Africa. Figures 195–197. B. awashensis, topotype from locality 12EX (2n=22, 6II+CX), Figures 198–200. B. berberensis from locality 19SO (2n=21, 9II+CIII), Figures 201–203. B. pococki sp. n., paratopotype (2n=22, 11II), Figures 204–206. B. pococki sp. n., paratype from locality 19SN (2n=22, 11II), Figures 207–209. B. zeylensis from locality 19SH (2n=22, 11II). Arrows show chromosomes in multivalent association during postpachytene. Asterisks show extra-large chromosome from multivalents. Arrowheads indicate large chromosome pair. Scale bar: 10 μm (195–196, 198–199, 201–202, 204–205, 207–208).