Centruroides edwardsii (Gervais, 1843)

Figures: 4; 9 A, B; 12 B; 13 A; 17 C, D, 24

References subsequent to Armas et al., 2011b: Armas et al. (2012): 106–108; Esposito et al. (2017): 13; Miranda (2022).

Type material: Male neotype, designated by Armas et al. (2011b: 6–7): COLOMBIA, LA GUAJIRA, Riohacha City, adult male (supposedly in BIOECO, Ex-RTO: Sco-0395); Calle 6 esquina a Carrera 5, inside a box in house, 25 June 2008, coll. W. Ramos. This neotype was never deposited in BIOECO and actually is in the personal collection of R. Teruel (RTO) in La Habana, a conflictive situation according to the Art. 75.3.7 (ICZN, 1999).

Material revised: PANAMA, Panamá: Tocumen, Tocumen International Airport (stowaway on a flight from Central America), 1 female, 27 May 2015, coll. M. Hinds (CoZEM-ICGES).

Diagnosis. Follows Armas et al. (2011b). A moderate to large species between 60 to 110 mm. Colouration: pedipalp chelae, carapace, tergites I–VII, metasomal segment V and telson dark reddish brown, pedipalp femur and patella, legs and venter yellowish brown; pectines light yellow; carinae on metasoma and pedipalps are dark brown. Carapace: densely and coarsely granular, with large spiniform granules interspersed. Lateral ocular tubercles with three macro-ocelli each. Ocular tubercle with granular superciliary carinae; lateral ocular carinae present, weak; posterior median carinae strongly granular. The anterior median furrow is wide and moderately deep, while the posterior median furrow is narrow and posteriorly deep; posterior marginal furrow shallow and wide. Pectines: pectinal tooth count between 22–30 in females, and 26–34 in males; basal plate rectangular. Mesosoma: tergites densely and coarsely granular; median carina granulates, present on all tergites; tergite VII pentacarinate, with strong granular carinae. Pedipalp: orthobothriotaxic, type A, very densely hirsute. Femur and patella with carinae granulate, internal face of femur tuberculate; patella internomedian carina discontinuous with spiniform tubercles. The chela is 3.3 to 3.5 longer than wide in females and 3.6 to 3.8 in males; chela very robust 1.3 to 1.4 wider than the patella. Chela with six distinct carinae: dorsal marginal almost smooth, pilose; digital crenate and smooth, dorsal secondary strong and smooth; ventroexternal and ventrointernal moderately strong and subgranulose, dorsal internal obsolete and sparsely granulose. Fingers with eight principal rows of granules, flanked internally and externally by numerous supernumerary granules, basal lobe/notch combination strong. Metasoma: with all carinae strongly denticulate, formula 10-8-8-8-5.; segments II–IV with more than three (usually four) pairs of ventrolateral macrosetae. Segment V is 1.8 times longer than wide in females and 2.8 to 2.9 times in males. Intercarinal spaces coriaceous. Telson with vesicle oblong in males and oval in females, with a spiniform subaculear tubercle directed toward the basal portion of the aculeus.

Distribution: The bark scorpion Centruroides edwardsii has been documented across South America (Colombia [its type locality], Ecuador), Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica), Mexico, and the Caribbean (Cuba, Jamaica) (Armas et al., 2011b). The only recorded specimen of this species in Panama is a female collected on May 27, 2015, at the Tocumen International Airport from a commercial flight arriving from Central America (Miranda, 2022) (Fig. 24).

Remarks: Recently, Martinez et al. (2022) recorded three scorpion specimens from Chilibre (9º09´56´´N 79º36´57´´W), Panama Province, Panama, and identified them as females of C. edwardsii. The photographed specimen (Martinez et al., 2022: fig. 1b) is not a female but an adult male as denoted by its elongate metasoma and slender pedipalps. That it is not C. edwardsii is evidenced by its spiniform subaculear tubercle, clearly distant from the base of the aculeus (in the former this morphological structure is near to the base of the aculeus), pedipalps with scarce setation (on C. edwardsii the pedipalp femur, patella and chela are profusely setose), pedipalps having slender manus with dorsal marginal carinae not remarkably pilose [in C. edwardsii the pedipalp manus is stronger and the dorsal marginal carina is very pilose (Fig. 12 B, 13 A)], and telson with subglobose vesicle [it is elongate in C. edwardsii (Fig. 17 C, D)]. The male illustrated by Martínez et al. (2022: fig. 1b) greatly matches with C. granosus (Thorell, 1876), although ventrolateral macrochaetae on metasomal segments II–IV are not distinguishable.

In some aspects, the male photographed by Martínez et al. (2022) also resembles C. margaritatus (Gervais, 1841), a species recorded Lourenço & Mendez (1984) from some Panamanian localities, including Chilibre; however, Miranda et al. (2014) showed that most of the specimens examined by those authors actually were C. granosus and also restricted the Panamanian distribution of C. margaritatus to the urban area of Panama City. Nevertheless, the female from Chilibre recorded by Lourenço & Mendez (1984) was not examined by Miranda et al. (2014), although they revised some C. granosus specimens from Chilibre deposited in the Gorgas Institute. The male of C. margaritatus differs from that of C. granosus in having an elongate telson (Fig. 17 A, E). Unfortunately, efforts to examine the specimens recorded by Martinez et al. (2022) were fruitless, and their correct identity remains uncertain.