Published December 17, 2024 | Version v1

Tityus (Tityus) charalaensis de Mello-Leitao 1940

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA & Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Science, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, the Netherlands & Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Universidad del Rosario, Cra. 24 # 63 c 69, Bogotá, Colombia

Description

T. (Tityus) charalaensis

(i) coloration, and in particular that of the metasoma (yellowish in T. charalaensis and reddish in T. (Tityus) achilles)

(ii) lateroventral carinae of metasomal segment II occupying its distal two-thirds (distal fifh in T. (Tityus) achilles)

(iii) lower pectinal tooth count with 14 in female holotype (15–17 in females in T. (Tityus) achilles (N = 12, mode = 16) and 15–16 in female paratype)

(iv) 14 rows of denticles on movable chela finger (15 in T. (Tityus) achilles)

(v) dorsolateral carinae of metasomal segments II–IV with spinoid posterior granules (absent on II, tubercular on III and spinoid on IV in T. (Tityus) achilles).

Ecology and type locality. The type locality, located in Cundinamarca, Colombia, is part of the Magdalena valley montane forest ecoregion. All specimens were collected on a patch of medium-altitude broadleaf rainforest, 1350 m a.s.l., with a mean annual precipitation of approximately 1450 mm and mean annual temperature of 21.3 °C. The new species occurs in sympatry with Tityus (Atreus) icarus Laborieux, 2024, but with clear differences in microhabitat preferences. While the latter species is strictly arboreal, usually found hanging vertically on tree trunks, specimens of T. (Tityus) achilles were collected on the forest floor exclusively, with no observed arboreal tendencies. Adult specimens were exceedingly rare, suggesting ontological variation in microhabitat preferences.

Notes

Published as part of Laborieux, Léo, 2024, Biomechanics of venom delivery in South America's first toxungen-spraying scorpion, pp. 1-16 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202 (4) on page 8, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae161, http://zenodo.org/record/14825462

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Scientific name authorship
de Mello-Leitao
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Order
Scorpiones
Family
Buthidae
Genus
Tityus
Species
charalaensis
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Tityus (Tityus) charalaensis Mello-Leitao, 1940 sec. Laborieux, 2024

References

  • Laborieux L. A new species of Tityus Koch, 1836 (Scorpiones: Buthidae), from the Cordillera Oriental (Colombia). Faunitaxys 2024; 12: 1 - 9.