Rhopalurus caribensis Teruel and Roncallo 2008
Creators: name: Lauren A. Esposito
name: Humberto Y. Yamaguti
name: Cláudio A. Souza
name: Ricardo Pinto-Da-Rocha
name: Lorenzo Prendini
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Scorpiones
Buthidae
Rhopalurus
Rhopalurus caribensis

description: Rhopalurus caribensis Teruel and Roncallo, 2008
Figures 6, 16 C, 20C, 21H, 22H, 24N–R, 52A, 53A, 54A, 55A, 56A, 57
Rhopalurus laticauda: Lourenço, 1982 a: 107, 108, 113, 115, 133–138, figs. 12, 13, 78, table 1 (misidentification: specimens from Magdalena); 1991a: 282; fig. 5 (misidentification: specimens from Magdalena); Flórez, 2001: 28 (misidentification: records from Magdalena and La Guajira); Botero-Trujillo and Fagua, 2007: 129–131, 133, figs. 4–6 (misidentification: specimen from Atlántico and records from Magdalena and La Guajira; Teruel and Roncallo, 2007: 6 (misidentification: record from La Guajira); Flórez, 2012 (part): 1, 2, figs. 1, 2, table 1.
Rhopalurus caribensis Teruel and Roncallo, 2008: 3–11, figs. 1–7, tables 1, 2; Lourenço, 2008: 5, 7, fig. 4; Prendini et al., 2009: 222, 223; Teruel and Roncallo, 2010: 2–4, 11, figs. 2, 11 (part), table 1; 2013: 112, 113, tables 1, 2; Teruel and Cozijn, 2013: 2.
TYPE MATERIAL: COLOMBIA: La Guajira Dept.: Holotype ♂ (RTO Sco.0358), Riohacha, Barrio “Adelaida,” 18.xii.2006, C.A. Roncallo. Paratypes: 2 ♂, 1 ♀, 1 juv. ♂ (RTO Sco.0359), Riohacha, Colegio “Sagrado Corazón,” km 1 via Maicao, 27.xi.2006, C.A. Roncallo; 1 ♀, 1 juv. ♂ (RTO Sco.0373), Serranía de Macuira, 3 km W of Nazareth, 14.vii.2007, J. Echavarría.
DIAGNOSIS: Rhopalurus caribensis is most closely related to R. ochoai, sp. nov. It resembles R. ochoai and typical populations of R. laticauda from the northwestern part of the distribution in its predominantly pale yellow-tan color, with light infuscation on the carapace and mesosoma, and metasoma V and telson slightly darker than the preceding segments. However, R. caribensis can be consistently differentiated from R. laticauda and R. ochoai by the color pattern on the ventral surface of the metasoma. Whereas R. caribensis displays three distinct, narrow stripes (a ventromedian stripe flanked on either side by a ventrosubmedian stripe) of pigmentation along the ventral surface, all three stripes are fused into a single, broad band of pigmentation (more pronounced in populations from the southeast of the distribution) in R. laticauda, and only two narrow ventrosubmedian stripes are present in R. ochoai. As with R. ochoai, R. caribensis differs further from populations of R. laticauda occurring in the southeastern part of the distribution (previously referable to R. amazonicus) in the considerably paler mesosoma, metasoma V, and telson. Additionally, the subaculear tubercle of the telson is vestigial in R. caribensis, small and blunt in R. laticauda, and subspinoid in R. ochoai.
ECOLOGY: Specimens for which data are available were collected with UV light detection at night in dry forest. The habitat and habitus are consistent with the lapidicolous ecomorphotype (Prendini, 2001 b).
DISTRIBUTION: This species appears to be endemic to the Llanos of the Magdalena, Colombia, separated from the nearest populations of R. laticauda and R. ochoai, sp. nov., by the Cordillera de Perijá (fig. 6). The known locality records occur in the Colombian departments of Atlántico, La Guajira, and Magdalena. Material reported from the Venezuelan state of Zulia (Rojas-Runjaic and Becerra, 2008; Teruel and Roncallo, 2008, 2010) is referable to R. ochoai.
REMARKS: The status of R. caribensis has been the subject of controversy. Lourenço (2008) suggested it is a morph of R. laticauda and might be more appropriately recognized as a subspecies thereof. Flórez (2012) synonymized R. caribensis with R. laticauda based in part on images of Tityus alleged to be R. caribensis. Teruel and Roncallo (2013) subsequently revalidated R. caribensis. The analyses by Esposito et al. (in review) supported the validity of R. caribensis based on genetic divergence from R. laticauda (fig. 13). The two species are also morphologically diagnosable based on the character combinations described above.
MATERIAL EXAMINED: COLOMBIA: Magdalena Dept.: Município Santa Marta: Bahía de Guairaca, Tayrona Park, 31.x.1985, H.-G. Muller, 1 ♀ (SMF 37027); Corregimiento de Bonda, Vereda Girocasaca, Finca Guaipi, 11°13′0 5.5″N 74°06′14.3″W, 173 m, 21–24.viii.2014, J.A. Moreno and W. Galvis, nocturnal, manual collection with UV light, 1 ♂ (AMCC [LP 13167]), 1 subad. ♂ (AMNH); Finca Las Delicias, 80 m, 17.v.2008, J.A. Noriega, 1 ♂ (AMCC [LP 9341]); Pozo Colorado, 11 km W Santa Marta, 18–30. iv.1968, B. Malkin, 1 ♀, 1 subad., 19 1 st instars (AMNH); Puente de Los Clavos, 15 km E Pueblo Bello, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, 1500 m, 13.vi.1968, B. Malkin, 1 subad. ♂ (AMNH); Santa Marta, 29.vi–31.vii.1966, 2 ♀ (SMF 39120).
description: Published as part of Lauren A. Esposito, Humberto Y. Yamaguti, Cláudio A. Souza, Ricardo Pinto-Da-Rocha & Lorenzo Prendini, 2017, Systematic Revision of the Neotropical Club-Tailed Scorpions, Physoctonus, Rhopalurus, and Troglorhopalurus, Revalidation of Heteroctenus, and Descriptions of Two New Genera and Three New Species (Buthidae: Rhopalurusinae), pp. 1-134 in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 415 on pages 103-108, DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090-415.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/851382