Troglorhopalurus translucidus Lourenco 2004
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 translucidus

description: Troglorhopalurus translucidus
Lourenço et al., 2004
Figures 1 H, 2H, 9B, 15E, 19E, 21L, 22L, 61B,
62C, D, F, 63C, D
Troglorhopalurus translucidus Lourenço et al., 2004: 1153–1156, figs. 1–10; Prendini et al., 2009: 222; Brazil and Porto, 2010: 52, 58, 62, fig. 4F; Porto et al., 2010: 293, 294, 296, fig. 3H, table 1; Gallão and Bichuette, 2016: 3–10, figs. 1–26, tables 1, 2, appendix 1; Ubinski et al., 2016: 122.
TYPE MATERIAL: [Subad.] ♂ holotype (MNRJ 4786), BRAZIL: Bahía: Município Lençóis: Gruta do Lapão, 12.xi.2002, A.P.L. Giupponi and R.L.C. Baptista.
DIAGNOSIS: Troglorhopalurus translucidus differs from its sister species, T. lacrau, as follows. The soma and appendages are elongate and slender in T. translucidus compared with T. lacrau, in which the soma and appendages are shorter and broader: total body length is about 60 mm in T. translucidus and 40 mm in T. lacrau; the pedipalp is 6.5× longer than the carapace in T. translucidus but 4.5× longer in T. lacrau; the pedipalp chela manus is very slender, the manus almost half the length of the movable finger in T. translucidus but incrassate and slightly shorter than the chela movable finger in T. lacrau; the pedipalp patella is 6× longer than wide in T. translucidus, but 3.8× longer in T. lacrau; metasomal segment V is 4.5× longer than wide in T. translucidus, but 2.7× longer in T. lacrau. The retromedian and secondary accessory carinae of the pedipalp chela manus are absent in T. translucidus, but present in T. lacrau. Nine subrows of denticles are present in the median denticle row of the chela fixed finger of T. translucidus, whereas eight subrows are present in T. lacrau. Macrosetae on the fixed and movable fingers of the pedipalp chela are longer than the chela width in T. translucidus, but shorter in T. lacrau. Macrosetae of the telson vesicle are shorter than the subaculear tubercle in T. translucidus, but longer in T. lacrau. The subaculear tubercle of the telson has a sharply pointed tip in T. translucidus, but is blunt in T. lacrau. The posterior third of the aculeus is straight in T. translucidus, but curved in T. lacrau.
DISTRIBUTION: Troglorhopalurus translucidus is endemic to the Brazilian state of Bahía, where it is known only from sandstone caves within the Chapada Diamantina National Park: the type locality, Lapão Cave, and a group of five caves ca. 30 km to the south, Esbirro de Quina Cave, Parede Vermelha Cave, Canal da Fumaça Cave, Lava Pé Cave, and Rio dos Pombos Cave (fig. 9B) (Gallão and Bichuette, 2016).
ECOLOGY: All specimens of T. translucidus thus far collected have been found within sandstone caves above 500 m (fig. 2H; Gallão and Bichuette, 2016). The habitat and habitus of this species are consistent with the troglobite ecomorphotype (Prendini, 2001 b).
REMARKS: The pale brown (translucent) coloration of the carapace, tergites, and metasoma of the holotype of T. translucidus, indicative in part of reduced sclerotization of the tegument and once thought to be diagnostic for the species (Lourenço et al., 2004), reflect its immature habitus (Gallão and Bichuette, 2016: 9, figs. 20–25). The adults are dark brown, the tegument more sclerotized, as observed in the adults of T. lacrau (figs. 1H, 63C, D).
MATERIAL EXAMINED: BRAZIL: Bahía: Município Lençóis: Gruta do Lapão, Chapada Diamantina, 12°34′0 0″S 41°22′60″W, 20–29.i.2009, H.Y. Yamaguti et al., 1 subad. ♂ (MZSP/AMCC [LP 9668]). Município Andaraí: Gruta Canal da Fumaça, 3.IV.2013, M.E. Bichuette, D.M. von Schimonsky, J.E. Gallão, 1 ♀ (LES-4786).
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 120-121, DOI: 10.1206/0003-0090-415.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/851382