Centruroides hoffmanni Armas 1996
Creators: name: Goodman, Aaron M.
name: Prendini, Lorenzo
name: Francke, Oscar F.
name: Esposito, Lauren A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Scorpiones
Buthidae
Centruroides
Centruroides hoffmanni

description: Centruroides hoffmanni Armas, 1996
Figures 2, 4, 7A, B, 10A, B, 15A, A, 17C, F, 18C, F, 19C, F, 20C, F, 21C, F, 22C, F, 23C, F, 24C, F, 25C, F, 38, 39 tables 1, 8, 10
Centruroides hoffmanni Armas, 1996: 29–32, figs. 5–9; 1999: 47, 51; Beutelspacher-Baigts, 2000: 123, 126, 139, 144, 155, map 106 (in part: records from Arriaga, Chiapas); Kovařík, 1998: 107; Fet and Lowe, 2000: 109; González-Santillán, 2001: 573; Armas et al., 2002: 94, 95; 2003: 94 (misidentification); 2004: 170, table 1 (misidentification); Martín-Frías et al., 2005: 1–6, figs. 1–13 (misidentification); Teruel et al., 2006: 223; Santibáñez-López and Ponce-Saavedra, 2009: 321, 323, 326, 328–231, figs. 12–15, 8–11, 16 (misidentification); Santibáñez-López and Contreras-Felix, 2013: 131, 138, fig. 7 (misidentification); Teruel et al., 2015a: 3, 6, 7, figs. 35–37 (misidentification); Kovařík et al., 2016b: 11 (misidentification); Esposito et al., 2017: 13; Esposito and Prendini, 2019: 4, 7, fig. 2.
TYPE MATERIAL: MEXICO: Chiapas: Município Arriaga: Holotype ♀, (CNAN 71), La Gloria 16°08′39.4″N 94°06′04.7″W, 11.xii.1974. J.L. Garcia, R. Ruiz, and J. Luis M.G., household collection.
DIAGNOSIS: Centruroides hoffmanni is most closely related to C. chanae, from which it differs as follows. A dark line along the lateral margins of the carapace and mesosomal tergites I–III, and pale stripe medially on the carapace and tergites, absent in C. hoffmanni (fig. 7A, B) are present in C. chanae (fig. 7C, D). The carapace, pedipalps, tergites, and metasoma are more infuscate, creating a more mottled appearance, in C. hoffmanni (figs. 38A, B, 39A, B) than C. chanae (figs. 40A, B, 41A, B). Less reticulate infuscation is present on the chelicerae of C. hoffmanni than C. chanae. The interocular triangle is more darkly infuscate in C. hoffmanni than C. chanae. The marbled infuscation of the mesosomal sternites is pronounced in C. hoffmanni, but faint or absent in C. chanae. The carapace is longer, its length greater than its width, in C. hoffmanni, but shorter, its length and width similar, in C. chanae (tables 8, 9). The carapace surfaces are more coarsely granular, the carinae more pronounced, and the sulci narrower and deeper in C. hoffmanni (fig. 7A, B) than C. chanae (fig. 7C, D). The pedipalp chela manus of the male is more incrassate in C. hoffmanni than C. chanae (fig. 15A, B). The ventral surfaces of the telotarsi of leg I are more finely and sparsely setose in C. hoffmanni than C. chanae. The pectinal tooth count of the male is lower in C. hoffmanni, usually 15, than C. chanae, usually 17 (table 8). The ventrolateral carinae of mesosomal sternite VII are granular, and the ventrosubmedian carinae weakly granular and restricted to the posterior half of the segment in C. hoffmanni, whereas the ventrolateral carinae are distinct, granular, and the ventrosubmedian carinae weakly developed, granular in C. chanae. Although the metasomal segments of the male are longer and narrower in C. hoffmanni than C. chanae, the metasoma is less than 3× the length of the mesosoma in C. hoffmanni but greater than 3× (up to 3.3×) its length in C. chanae (table 10). The ventrolateral and ventrosubmedian carinae of the metasomal segments are more pronounced in C. hoffmanni, being slightly serrate on segments I–IV, compared with finely granular to subserrate on I–III and obsolete, smooth on IV in C. chanae. The ventrosubmedian carinae of segments I and II are very pronounced in C. hoffmanni (figs. 18C, F, 19C, F) but absent or obsolete in C. chanae (figs. 18I, L, 19I, L). The telson of the male is elongate, the vesicle bilobed posteriorly in C. hoffmanni (fig. 25C, F), whereas the telson is shorter, the vesicle rounded posteriorly in C. chanae (fig. 25I, L).
DISTRIBUTION: Centruroides hoffmanni is endemic to the state of Chiapas in southeastern Mexico. The known records are restricted to the Central Depression, bounded by the Central Highlands, to the north, and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, to the south (fig. 4), an area which exhibits high levels of endemism (Reyes-García and Sousa, 1995).
ECOLOGY: The localities at which C. hoffmanni has been recorded range in altitude from 529 to 1513 m and are situated in subtropical dry forest. The habitat and habitus are consistent with the arboreal, corticolous ecomorphotype (Prendini, 2001a).
REMARKS: Confusion has surrounded this species since its original description. Armas (1996) described the holotype as an adult female, but later (Armas, 1999; Armas et al. 2003) stated it was immature. Beutelspacher-Baigts (2000) confused C. hoffmanni with Centruroides nigrovariatus Pocock, 1898, and C. tuxtla, erroneously listing the species from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, an error repeated by Armas et al. (2003, 2004). Martín-Frías et al. (2005) redescribed C. hoffmanni from material originating in Oaxaca that is evidently heterospecific with the holotype based on characters of the female: the pectinal plate of the material described is not distinctly lobed or posteriorly rounded, the pectinal tooth count is higher, the metasoma and telson markedly are granular, and the subaculear tubercule is not elongate and angular. Santibáñez-López and Ponce-Saavedra (2009) again misidentified C. hoffmanni, presenting photographs of female specimens in which the pectinal plate is not distinctly lobed or posteriorly rounded, along with measurements and pectinal tooth counts inconsistent with the holotype, once more erroneously listing the species from Oaxaca. The error was repeated by Santibáñez-López and Contreras-Félix (2013), and yet again by Teruel et al. (2015a), who erroneously associated C. hoffmanni with the “ nigrovariatus group” of Centruroides. Kovařík et al. (2016b) followed previous authors in misidentifying material from Guerrero and Oaxaca as C. hoffmanni.
MATERIAL EXAMINED: MEXICO: Chiapas: Município Angel Albino Corzo: 8 km from Siltepec, 18°48′33″N 92°40′30.6″W, 663 m, 17.viii.2007, C. Mayorga, G. Ortega, and L. Cervantes, 1 juv. ♀ (CNAN SC3990). Município Comitan: Parque Nacional Lagunas de Montebelo, 16°17′17″N 91°56′16″W, 1473 m, 3.ix.2005, O.F. Francke, M. Córdova, A. Jaimes, A. Valdez, and H. Montaño, 1 juv. ♂ (CNAN SC3992). Município La Concordia: Villa Corzo La Tigrilla, San Julián, Revolución Mexicana, 16°00′00″N 92°50′47″W, 544 m, 17.iii.2007, C. Mayorga, G. Ortega, and L. Cervantes. 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (CNAN SC3998). Município Tuxtla Gutiérrez: Las Delicias, 16°45′31.1″N 93°06′26.4″W, 529 m, 2.iii.2005, O.F. Francke, M. Córdova, A. Jaimes, A. Valdez, and H. Montaño, 1 ♀ (AMNH [LP 5224]); Gutiérrez, San Julián, Revolución Mexicana, 16°11′41″N 93°01′16″W, 544 m, 16.iii.2007, G. Ortega and A. Cervantes, 2 ♂, 3 ♀ (CNAN SC3997). Município Tzimol: Carretera [Hwy] Comitán–Tzimol Santa Rosa, 16°11′03.4″N 92°16′59.3″W, 632–730 m, 2.ix.2005, O.F. Francke, M. Córdova, A. Jaimes, A. Valdez, and H. Montaño, 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (AMNH [LP 5249]), 1 ♀, first instar juvs (CNAN SC3994), 1 ♀, first instar juvs (CNAN SC3995), 3 ♂, 9 ♀, 2 juv. ♂, 14 juv. ♀ (CNAN SC3996). Município Villaflores: Reserva de La Biosfera La Sepultura, 1 km SE of Ejido California, 16°15′14.2″N 93°35′46.4″W, 1009–1132 m, 30.viii.2005, O.F. Francke, M. Córdova, A. Jaimes, A. Valdez, and H. Montaño, 1 ♂ (AMNH [LP 5350]), 1 ♂, 2 ♀, 4 juv. ♂ (CNAN SC3993), 1 ♀, first instar juvs (CNAN SC3991).
description: Published as part of Goodman, Aaron M., Prendini, Lorenzo, Francke, Oscar F. & Esposito, Lauren A., 2021, Systematic Revision Of The Arboreal Neotropical " Thorellii " Clade Of Centruroides Marx, 1890, Bark Scorpions (Buthidae C. L. Koch, 1837) With Descriptions Of Six New Species, pp. 1-93 in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2021 (452) on pages 53-55, DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090.452.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5825896