Centruroides gracilis (Latreille, 1804)

Figure: 11 C.

Diagnosis. Follows Pocock (1902), Hoffmann (1932), Sissom & Lourenço (1987), Armas & Martín-Frías (2008), Teruel (2008), Martín-Frías et al. (2009), Teruel & Myers (2017). Total length ranges from 55 to 140 mm. Colouration: predominantly dark brown in colour, which can be almost black, with sometimes reddish manus. Carapace: with sparse, coarse, and blunt granulation, and with very fine granulation between the carinae. Lateral ocular tubercles with three macro-ocelli each; ocular tubercle with costate-granular superciliary carinae, posterior median carinae strong. Anterior median furrow wide and moderately deep; posterior median furrow narrow, posteriorly deep; posterior marginal furrow shallow and wide. Pectines: Pectinal tooth counts 24–32 in females and 24–36 in males. The basal plate is rectangular, wider than it is long, with an oval central depression that varies from shallow to very deep. Mesosoma: finely and closely granular. Median carinae vestigial to moderate granular in tergite II, moderate to strong granular in tergites III-VI. Tergite VII pentacarinate. Pedipalp: orthobothriotaxic, type A, basically glabrous. Femur and patella with carinae closely granular. Chela is 4.3 to 4.4 times longer than wide in females and 4.5 to 5 times in males; Chela is about same width as the patella, only 1.1 to 1.2 times wider in both sexes. Chela carination: dorsal marginal vestigial in the basal one-third but moderate and subgranulose on the distal portion, dorsal secondary and digital strong and subgranulose, ventroexternal moderate, almost smooth; ventrointernal and dorsal internal vestigial and mostly smooth. Fixed finger with nine oblique rows of granules, with shallow basal notch; movable finger with a well-developed basal lobe. Metasoma: segments I-V with 10- 8-8-8-5 carinae; uniform crenate carinae. Intercarinal spaces weakly granular. Segments II-IV with two pairs of ventrolateral macrosetae. Segment V is 2.4 to 2.5 longer than wide in females, and 2.9 to. 3.4 in males. Telson with globose vesicle in the female, while in the male, the vesicle is elongate, with a rounded expansion (shoulders) on each side near the base of the aculeus; spiniform subaculear tubercle, parallel to the sting and somewhat separated from its base.

Distribution: United States (Florida), Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela. Also introduced in the Canary Islands, Spain (Armas et al., 2012).

Remarks: Centruroides gracilis, was recorded Lourenco & Mendez (1984) from the Panamanian provinces of Bocas del Toro and Panama (not Darien, as erroneously mentioned in Teruel & Cozijn, 2011), but at least the records from Bocas del Toro were based on misidentifications (Montoya & Armas, 2002; Teruel & Cozijn, 2011). From urban areas of Panama Province, only C. granosus and C. margaritatus populations have been detected (Armas & Trujillo, 2010; Armas et al., 2011a; Miranda et al., 2014; Miranda, 2022).