Hottentotta Birula 1908
Creators: name: Lourenco, Wilson
name: Duhem, Bernard
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy

description: particular to<i> Hottentotta</i> remain poorly defined. According to V. Fet (personal communication), the clarification of this situation will require a careful analysis of clusters of 'true'<i> Mesobuthus</i> versus African and Middle-East<i> Hottentotta</i>, with the possible definition of new characters. Th e DNA tree proposed by Fet et al. (2003) shows that<i> Mesobuthus</i> is much closer to<i> Compsobuthus</i> than it is to<i> Hottentotta</i>, but in this study only few<i> Hottentotta</i> species were analysed.<i> Compsobuthus</i> is very diverse and widely distributed from Mauritania to India. On the other hand,<i> Mesobuthus</i> is also widely distributed but with a centre of its diversity in Iran and Central Asia. Phylogenetic studies on the genus<i> Mesobuthus</i> (Gantenbein et al. 2003), indicate that western Palaearctic forms of this genus may be ancestral, and forms distributed further east and north in Central Asia, Mongolia and China are derived from them. Th e modern range of the genus<i> Mesobuthus</i> represents the northern limit of scorpion distribution in Asia ( Gromov 2001). This corresponds to the general trend in the evolution of Central Asian desert biota ( Kryzhanovsky 1965; Fet 1994).<i> Buthus</i>, is widespread over the Saharo-Sindian region, whereas<i> Leiurus</i> has a more centralized distribution. The same is true of the psammophile<i> Vachoniolus</i>. All are typical elements of the Palaearctic deserts in North Africa and the Middle East ( Vachon 1952; Levy and Amitai 1980; Sissom 1994; Lourenço 2003; 2005a). Several results suggest that<i> Leiurus</i> may be more closely related to<i> Androctonus</i> Ehrenberg, 1828 than to any other genus represented in Saharo-Sindian region ( Fet et al. 2003). This is consistent with the data on the toxins of their venoms ( Loret and Hammock 2001). Biogeographical considerations on the Saharo-Sindian scorpion fauna
description: Published as part of <i>Lourenco, Wilson &amp; Duhem, Bernard, 2009, Saharo-Sindian buthid scorpions; description of two new genera and species from Occidental Sahara and Afghanistan, pp. 37-54 in ZooKeys 14</i> on page 50, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.14.212, http://zenodo.org/record/576470
description: {"references": ["Fet V, Gantenbein B, Gromov AV, Lowe G, Lourenco WR (2003) The first molecular phylogeny of Buthidae (Scorpiones). Euscorpius 4: 1 - 10.", "Gromov AV (2001) On the northern boundary of scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones) in Central Asia. In: Fet V, Selden PA (Eds) Scorpions 2001. In Memoriam Gary A. Polis. British Arachnological Society, Burnham Beeches, Bucks, UK, 301 - 307.", "Kryzhanovsky OL (1965) Th e composition and origin of the terrestrial fauna of Middle Asia (based primarily on Coleopteran material). Moscow &amp; Leningrad: Nauka, 420 pp. (in Russian). English translation, 1980. New Delhi, India (Smithsonian Institution Translation Program).", "Fet V (1994) Fauna and zoogeography of scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones) in Turkmenistan. In: Fet V, Atamuradov KI (Eds) Biogeography and ecology of Turkmenistan (Monographiae Biologicae 72). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 525 - 534.", "Vachon M (1952) Etudes sur les scorpions. Publications de l'Institut Pasteur d'Algerie, Alger: 482 pp.", "Levy G, Amitai P (1980) Fauna Palaestina. Arachnida I. Scorpiones. Th e Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem, 130 pp.", "Sissom, WD (1994) Descriptions of new and poorly known scorpions of Yemen (Scorpiones: Buthidae, Diplocentridae, Scorpionidae). Fauna of Saudi Arabia 14: 3 - 39.", "Loret E, Hammock B (2001) Structure and neurotoxicity of scorpion toxins. In: Brownell PH, Polis GA (Eds) Scorpion Biology and Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 204 - 233."]}