The Scorpion Files Newsblog

 Rolando Teruel and Rene Durocher have confirmed the presence of Centruroides marcanoi Armas, 1981 (Buthidae) in Haiti in a recent paper.

Abstract:
The scorpion Centruroides marcanoi Armas, 1981, is endemic from Hispaniola, where it was previously known only from southwestern Dominican Republic. Its predictable occurrence in Haiti is herein documented for the first time, upon a subadult individual photographed in Kenscoff, a mountain site of the Massif de la Selle located ca. 10 km south-southwest of Port-au Prince.

Reference:
Teruel R, Durocher R. First record of Centruroides marcanoi Armas, 1981 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Haiti. Boletin del Grupo de Sistematica y Ecologia de Atropodos Caribenos. 2020;5:1-5. [Available from author in Research Gate]

Thanks to Rolando for sending me their article!

 

Rolando Teruel and Gabriel de los Santos have recently published a new article presenting two new species of Tityus C. L. Koch, 1836 (Buthidae) from Hispaniola, Greater Antilles.

Tityus haetianus Teruel & Santos, 2018 (Haiti)

Tityus schrammi Teruel & Santos, 2018 (The Dominican Republic)

Abstract:
Two new species of Buthidae scorpions of the genus Tityus C. L. Koch, 1836 are herein described from the Greater Antillean island of Hispaniola. One of them belongs to the "crassimanus" species-group and is known from an adult pair collected at Massif de la Hotte, in southwestern Haiti. The other belongs to the "quisqueyanus" species-group and is known from a single adult female from a high peak in the Central Range (= Cordillera Central), in northwestern Dominican Republic. Moreover, two fossil taxa from this island are retained as junior synonyms of Tityus geratus Santiago-Blay, 1988†.

Reference:
Teruel R, de los Santos G. Two New Tityus C. L. Koch, 1836 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Hispaniola, Greater Antilles. Euscorpius. 2018;257:1-16. [Open Access]

Family Buthidae

Gabriel de los Santos and co-workers published an annotated list of the known scorpions from Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 2016. I just recently learned about this article, hence the late mentioning in the blog. The article is in Spanish.

Abstract:
It is given an annotated list of the known scorpions of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), which belong to three families (Buthidae, Hormuridae, Scorpionidae), eight genera and 46 recent and four fossil species. Buthidae (five genera and 37 living species) is the most diversified family in this Antillean island, being Tityus C. L. Koch, 1836, Microtityus Kjellesvig-Waering, 1966, and Centruroides Marx, 1890, the most diverse and widespread genera with 14, 12 and seven species, respectively. The Dominican Republic (that represents the eastern two-thirds of the island), has 45 species and 36 of them are endemic from the country, whereas Haiti accounts nine species with a single national endemism. Isometrus maculatus (De Geer, 1778) has been introduced in both countries and is the only non-endemic species. This is the only Antillean island which includes representatives of both the Hormuridae family and the fossil fauna (in amber).

Reference:
de los Santos G, de Armas LF, Teruel R. Lista anotada de los escorpiones (Arachnida: Scorpiones) de la Española (República Dominicana y Haití). Novitates Caribaea. 2016;10:1-22. [Open Access]

Thanks to Mack Diamond for informing me about this paper!

Luis de Armas has investigated scorpion materials from Haiti and concluded that the recently described new species from Haiti, Centruroides haitiensis Lourenco, 2016 (Buthidae), is a junior synonym of Centruroides alayoni Armas, 1999. The latter was previously known from the Dominican Republic, and this is the first record from Haiti.

Centruroides haitiensis Lourenco, 2016 has not been listed in The Scorpion Files or mentioned in the blog because I have not been able to get this article in full text. The reference for this article is listed below.

Abstract:
Centruroides haitiensis Lourenço, 2016, from Grande Cayemite, Haiti, is regarded as a junior synonym of Centruroides alayoni Armas, 1999, previously known from southern Pedernales Province (215 km east of Grande Cayemite), Dominican Republic. Consequently, C. alayoni is herein recorded for the first time from Haiti. The list of the Haitian species of the genus Centruroides Marx, 1890 is given.

References:
De Armas LF. First Record of Centruroides alayoni Armas, 1999 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Haiti, Greater Antilles. Euscorpius. 2017(244):1-3. [Open Access]

Lourenco WR. A new species of Centruroides Marx, 1890 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from the Island of ‘Grande Cayemite’ in Haiti. Arachnida - Rivista Aracnologica Italiana. 2016;8:16-23.

Family Buthidae

Rolando Teruel and co-workers have recently described a new species of Centruroides Marx, 1890 (Butidae) from Southern Hispaniola, The Dominican Republic.

Centruroides lucidus Teruel, Armas & Kovarik, 2015

The new species probably also inhabits Haiti.

Abstract:
We describe herein a new species of buthid scorpions, Centruroides lucidus sp. n., from southwestern Dominican Republic
(Pedernales and Barahona Provinces), in the Greater Antillean island of Hispaniola. It is most similar to Centruroides nitidus
(Thorell, 1876) and Centruroides bani Armas & Marcano, 1987 (both of which occur together with it along the same general
area), against which a very detailed comparison is provided. The new species is fully illustrated with color photos of habitus,
key diagnostic morphological characters, and habitat.

Reference:
Teruel R, De Armas LF, Kovarik F. A New Species of Centruroides Marx, 1890 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Southern Hispaniola, Greater Antilles. Euscorpius. 2015 (198):1-18. [Open Access]

Family Buthidae