Chiromachetes fergusoni Pocock, 1899

Sulakhe, Shauri, Deshpande, Shubhankar, Dandekar, Nikhil, Ketkar, Makarand, Gowande, Gaurang, Padhye, Anand & Bastawade, Deshabhushan, 2020, Two new species of Chiromachetes (Scorpiones: Hormuridae) from the northern Western Ghats, India, Euscorpius 320, pp. 1-27 : 19-23

Chiromachetes fergusoni Pocock, 1899

( Figures 64–81 , Tables 2 , 4 )

http: //zoobank. org/urn:lsid:zoobank. org:act:09E131DF- 9E83-4C7B-8B50-8B3688050A25

TYPE LOCALITY AND TYPE REPOSITORY: India, Kerala State, Trivandram (now Thiruvananthapuram) ; BMNH.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. India, Kerala State, Thiruvananthapuram District, Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary , 8°37'24"N 77°08'08"E, 120 m a. s. l., 1♂ , WGRC –9811 (formerly in ZSI, Table 2 ), 12 November 2016, leg. Bindu.

DESCRIPTION (based on ♂ topotype; measurements in Table 2 ). Coloration (in preserved condition) ( Figs. 64, 65 ). Overall body color dark brownish to blackish with glossy surface. Legs blackish brown, yellow on tarsomere II. Telson yellow on vesicle and black on aculeus. Ventral portion of body brownish black, except sternopectinal area yellowish brown. Carapace and fingers of manus blackish. Pedipalps black on dorsal surface and dark brownish on ventral surface. Chelicera basal segment blackish brown with black reticulation. Fingers of chelicera blackish brown.

Carapace ( Figs. 72–73 ). Carapace wider than long. Entire surface of carapace almost smooth, finely punctate throughout with fine and sparce granulation present all along the longitudinal median furrow. Posterior lateral furrow distinct with very fine granulation. Posterior median furrow triangular with a deep, narrow and horizontal posterior depression. Anterior margin of carapace with deep U-shaped emargination in the middle. Lateral ocular tubercle with three pairs of lateral eyes. Carapace without carinae. Pair of median eyes situated on carapace in the proportions 1:2.1 (distance of median eyes to anterior margin: distance of median eyes to posterior margin). Margins entirely smooth.

Chelicerae ( Fig. 68 ). Fixed finger of chelicera with three large triangular denticles on inner margin. Ventral tooth of movable finger lacks denticulation. Dorsal tooth of movable finger with 3 denticles on inner margin.

Pedipalp ( Figs. 74–80 ). Pedipalps dorsoventrally flat. Femur and patella with four carinae (dorsal prolateral, ventral prolateral, dorsal retrolateral, ventral retrolateral). Intercarinal space with coarse granulation. Prolateral surface of patella with large spur bearing two equal sized tubercles. Chela with five carinae (dorsal prolateral, ventral prolateral, dorsal retrolateral, median retrolateral, ventral retrolateral). Intercarinal space coarsely granular. Dentate margins of both chela fingers composed of two rows of granules. Movable finger granular on both surfaces. Trichobothrial pattern of ‘ type C’ typical of the genus. Number of trichobothria: chela dorsal (3), chela ventral (4), chela prolateral (2), chela retrolateral (15), patella dorsal (2), patella ventral (3), patella prolateral (1), patella retrolateral (13), femur dorsal (1), femur prolateral (1) and femur retrolateral (1).

Legs ( Figs. 64, 65, 69 , 71, 72 ). Legs I-IV; femur carinated on anterior portion; intercarinal space with fine granulation; tarsomere I with four spines distally and tarsomere II with three spines distally and one or two spinules at the proximal end.

Sternum, genital operculum and pectines ( Fig. 66 ). Sternum broad, pentagonal and entirely smooth. Genital operculum with a pair of genital papillae. Posterior sclerite with slight depression on middle portion. Pectines with 10/11 pectinal teeth and 9/10 fulcra.

Mesosoma ( Figs. 64, 65 , 71, 72 ). All tergites smooth with median elevated portion. All sternites entirely smooth except sternite VII entirely punctate, granular only on lateral portion and with symmetrical depressions on both halves posteriorly. Metasoma ( Figs. 64, 65 , 70–71 ). Metasomal segments I– IV smooth, finely punctate and with very weak carinae. Intercarinal space smooth and finely punctate. Ventrolateral carina on segment V very weakly serrated mostly on the middle portion. Intercarinal space very weakly granular. Anal rim weakly tuberculated.

Telson ( Fig. 67 ). Pyriform, almost entirely smooth and hirsute on the ventral side. Aculeus short and curved.

DISTRIBUTION. C. fergusoni is known only from the type locality, Kerala State, Trivandram (now Thiruvananthapuram), India .

Figures

Figures 64–69. Chiromachetes fergusoni, male topotype, dorsal (64) and ventral (65) views, sternopectinal area (66), metasoma V and telson lateral view (67), chelicera dorsal (68) and tarsi IV (69).

Figures 70–73. Chiromachetes fergusoni, male topotype, dorsal (70) and ventral (71) views under UV lights, carapace under white (72) and UV (73) light.

Figures 74–80. Chiromachetes fergusoni, male topotype, pedipalp chela dorsal (74), external (75) and ventral (76) views, patella dorsal (77), ventral (78) and external (79) views and femur dorsal (80) view. Trichobothrial pattern indicated by yellow circles.

Figures 81–82. Figure 81. Discriminant function analyses projection on first two factor planes explaining 96.85% of variation among the five species.Abbreviations:Circlecells (males), Squarecells (females).Figure 82. Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree (ML) for Chiromachetes from northern Western Ghats of India. Values along the nodes are bootstraps for 1000 iterations.

Tables

Table 4. Comparison among Chiromachetes species based upon selected morphometric ratios of adults. Abbreviations: length (L), width (W) depth (D).

Ratios of males	C. parakrami	C. tirupati	C. fergusoni	C. sahyadriensis	C. ramdasswamii
	sp. n. 4♂	1♂	1♂	3♂	sp. n.3♂
Pedipalp chela (L/W)	4.3–4.4	3.6	3.4	3.9–4.9	4.9–5.0
Pedipalp femur (L/W)	3.2–3.5	2.5	2.3	3.3–3.8	3.7–4.1
Chela / Movable finger (L)	2.4–2.6	–	2.1	2.6–2.9	2.7
Ratios of females	C. parakrami	C. tirupati	C. fergusoni	C. sahyadriensis	C. ramdasswamii
	sp. n. 1♀	♀	1♀	2♀	sp. n.4♀
Pedipalp chela (L/W)	3.5	–	3.6	3.4–3.5	3.3–3.4
Pedipalp femur (L/W)	3.0	–	2.6	2.7–2.8	2.6–2.9
Telson (L/D)	2.8	–	–	2.7	2.3–2.5