Troglorhopalurus lacrau Lauren A. Esposito & Humberto Y. Yamaguti & Cláudio A. Souza & Ricardo Pinto-Da-Rocha & Lorenzo Prendini 2017
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
Troglorhopalurus
Troglorhopalurus lacrau

description: Troglorhopalurus lacrau (Lourenço and Pinto-da-Rocha, 1997), comb. nov.
Figures 1 G, 2G, 9, 10E, 11F, 12D, 14F, 17F, 18F,
21K, 22K, 61A, 62A, B, E, 63A, B
Rhopalurus lacrau Lourenço and Pinto-da-
Rocha, 1997: 182–183, figs. 1–3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14; Kovařík, 1998: 118; Fet and Lowe, 2000: 220; Lourenço, 2008: 3; Prendini et al., 2009: 222, 223; Brazil and Porto, 2010: 50, 62; Porto et al., 2010: 293–295, table 1; Lourenço, 2014: 69, 73–75, fig. 12; Gallão and Bichuette, 2016: 2, 3, 9–11, figs. 1, 18; Ubinski et al., 2016: 122.
Rhopalurus brejo Lourenço, 2014: 71–75, figs. 1–12; syn. nov.
TYPE MATERIAL: BRAZIL: Rhopalurus lacrau: Holotype ♀ (MZSP 15175), Bahía: Município Itaeté: Lapa do Bode (inside the cave), 12°56′S 41°04′W, 7.ix.1993, E. Trajluio. Rhopalurus brejo: Holotype ♀ (MNHN), Ceará: Chapada (serra) do Araripe, Brejo Grande, S of Santana, ii.1964.
DIAGNOSIS: Troglorhopalurus lacrau differs from its sister species, T. translucidus, as follows. The soma and appendages are shorter and broader in T. lacrau than T. translucidus, in which the soma and appendages are elongate and slender: total body length is about 40 mm in T. lacrau and 60 mm in T. translucidus; the pedipalp is 4.5× longer than the carapace in T. lacrau but 6.5× longer in T. translucidus; the pedipalp chela manus is incrassate and slightly shorter than the chela movable finger in T. lacrau but very slender, the manus almost half the length of the movable finger in T. translucidus; the pedipalp patella is 3.8× longer than wide in T. lacrau, but 6× longer in T. translucidus; metasomal segment V is 2.7× longer than wide in T. lacrau, but 4.5× longer in T. translucidus. The retromedian and secondary accessory carinae of the pedipalp chela manus are weakly granular in T. lacrau, and absent in T. translucidus. Eight subrows of denticles are present in the median denticle row of the chela fixed finger of T. lacrau, whereas nine subrows are present in T. translucidus. Macrosetae on the fixed and movable fingers of the pedipalp chela are shorter than the chela width in T. lacrau, but longer in T. translucidus. Macrosetae of the telson vesicle are shorter than the subaculear tubercle in T. lacrau, but longer in T. translucidus. The subaculear tubercle of the telson is blunt in T. lacrau, but has a sharply pointed tip in T. translucidus. The posterior third of the aculeus is curved in T. lacrau, but straight in T. translucidus.
DISTRIBUTION: Troglorhopalurus lacrau is endemic to Brazil, and known from only two populations, in the states of Bahía and Ceará (fig. 9A). All except two specimens were collected from two connected caves, Lapa do Bode Cave and Gruta Escondida in the Município Itaeté of Bahía. A single, dead individual was collected from Bob Cave, ca. 20 km northeast (Gallão and Bichuette, 2016), also in Município Itaeté. The second population of T. lacrau is represented by the type locality and only known specimen of its junior synonym, R. brejo, in the state of Ceará. The two localities are 700 km apart but the region between them, the Serra do Espinhaço, is poorly sampled. Assuming the record from Ceará is reliable, this species may be discovered in the Serra do Espinhaço when it is more thoroughly surveyed.
ECOLOGY: Most of the known specimens of T. lacrau were collected under stones inside limestone caves. Despite extensive searches, no specimens were found outside the type locality, Lapa do Bode Cave (Gallão and Bichuette, 2016), where this species has a well-established population (fig. 2G). The habitat, distribution and habitus are consistent with the troglophile ecomorphotype (Prendini, 2001 b).
REMARKS: Rhopalurus brejo was poorly described in an obscure journal with distorted plates. The original description and illustrations barely permit us to determine to which genus this taxon belongs. Although the holotype and only known specimen of R. brejo was not directly examined during the present investigation, its identity was verified by photographs received from the MNHN (and now publicly available at https://science.mnhn.fr/institution/ mnhn/collection/rs/). Examination thereof, together with the limited data provided in the original description, leaves no doubt that R. brejo is conspecific with T. lacrau. Rhopalurus brejo shares with T. lacrau the presence of distinct pedipalp carinae and eight subrows of denticles in the median denticle row of the chela fixed finger. We therefore propose the following synonym: Rhopalurus brejo Lourenço, 2014 = Troglorhopalurus lacrau (Lourenço and Pinto-da-Rocha, 1997), syn. nov.
MATERIAL EXAMINED: BRAZIL: Bahía: Município Itaeté: trail connecting caves Lapa do Bode and Gruta Escondida, 12°56′9.1″S 41°03′56.2″W, 21.i.2007, C.I. Mattoni, R. Pinto-da-Rocha and H.Y. Yamaguti, under rocks, 2 ♀ (AMNH), 1 subad. ♀, 4 juv. (AMCC [LP 7637]); Lapa do Bode Cave, 24.i.2007, C.I. Mattoni, R. Pinto-da-Rocha and H. Yamaguti, 1 subad. ♀ (AMCC [LP 10211]).
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 119-120, DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090-415.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/851382