Genus Microtityus Kjellesvig-Waering, 1966

Microtityus Kjellesvig-Waering, 1966: 130 .

TYPE SPECIES. — Microtityus rickyi Kjellesvig-Waering, 1966 by original designation.

INCLUDED SPECIES. — Forty-two species (Table 1).

DISTRIBUTION. — Northern South America (Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela) and the Caribbean (British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Virgin Islands [United States]). See Figure 10A, Table 1 and Appendix 1.

AMENDED DIAGNOSIS. — Among the buthid genera of the Americas, Microtityus shares the presence of telotarsi I-IV with ventral setae distributed in two submedian rows with Alayotityus (Armas, 1973); Chaneke (Francke, Teruel & Santibáñez-López, 2014); Heteroctenus Pocock, 1893; Ischnotelson (Esposito, Yamaguti, Souza, Pinto-da-Rocha & Prendini, 2017); Jaguajir (Esposito, Yamaguti, Souza, Pinto-da-Rocha & Prendini, 2017); Tityopsis (Armas, 1974); Tityus (C. L. Koch, 1836) [in part]; Troglorhopalurus (Lourenço, Baptista & Giupponi, 2004), and Zabius (Thorell, 1893) .

However, Microtityus may be readily recognized from these genera based on the presence of: 1) a subtriangular carapace with an anterior margin strongly narrowed compared to the posterior margin (Fig. 2A, B); 2) tergites I-VI each with three (Fig. 2A, B) to five dorsal carinae; 3) a subpentagonal sternum (Fig. 5A, B); and 4) a female pectinal plate strongly projected posteriorly (Fig. 5B). Whereas, the other genera share: 1) a trapezoidal carapace with an anterior margin slightly to moderately narrowed compared with the posterior margin; 2) tergites I-VI with three carinae ( Alayotityus, Ischnotelson and Zabius) or a single carina ( Chaneke, Heteroctenus, Jaguajir, Tityus, Tityopsis and Troglorhopalurus); 3) a subtriangular sternum; and 4) a female pectinal plate not projected ( Chaneke, Heteroctenus [in part], Ischnotelson, Jaguajir [in part], Tityus, Troglorhopalurus and Zabius) or slightly projected posteriorly ( Heteroctenus [in part] and Jaguajir [in part]).