Alacran sp.

Vignoli, Valerio & Prendini, Lorenzo, 2009, Systematic Revision Of The Troglomorphic North American Scorpion Family Typhlochactidae (Scorpiones: Chactoidea), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2009 (326), pp. 1-94 : 35-38

Alacran sp.

( Fig. 1A )

REMARKS: A single female specimen recently collected in Te Cimutaá Cave (fig. 1A) may be an undescribed species. The specimen has a different number of primary subrows in the median denticle row of the pedipalp chela fingers, a proportionally shorter metasoma, and is less granular, with slightly weaker carinae, than specimens of A. tartarus from the Sistema Huautla.

MATERIAL EXAMINED: Mexico: Oaxaca: Município de Valle Nacional: 1 ♀ ( IBUNAM), leg ( AMCC [ LP 8571]), Te Cimutaá Cave, 17 ° 549190 N 96 ° 229390W, 944 m, P. Bryant, 25. IV.2008.

TYPHLOCHACTINAE Mitchell, 1971

Typhlochactinae Mitchell, 1971: 135 ; type genus Typhlochactas Mitchell, 1971 .

Typhlochactini: Francke, 1982a: 51, 59–61, fig. 26; Francke, 1986: 5; Sissom, 1988: 365; Sissom and Cokendolpher, 1998: 285.

DIAGNOSIS: Typhlochactinae , the sister group of Alacraninae (fig. 4), may be separated from the latter on the basis of the following combination of characters. Size usually small to very small, total length (adult) less than 25 mm. Cheliceral fixed finger, median and basal teeth usually not fused into a bicusp; movable finger with three, four, or five dorsal teeth (none, one, or two subdistal teeth). Carapace, anterior margin, median projection (epistome) usually present; median longitudinal sulcus well developed. Pedipalp femur dorsoexternal, dorsointernal, and ventrointernal carinae,

TABLE 6 Meristic data for Alacran tartarus Francke, 1982

Measurements (mm) follow Francke et al. (2009). Abbreviations as follows: AMNH 5 American Museum of Natural History, New York; MNHN 5

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; WDS 5 W. David Sissom Private Collection, Canyon, TX

TABLE 6 (Continued)

patella dorsoexternal, externomedian, ventroexternal, and ventrointernal carinae, and chela external secondary, ventroexternal and ventrointernal carinae, usually absent or obsolete. Pedipalp chela, fixed and movable fingers, median denticle row comprising 4–7 and 5–7 oblique primary subrows, respectively; internal denticles larger than external denticles. Pedipalp patella with 19 (rarely 20) trichobothria, three situated on dorsal surface, 14 (rarely 15), including one (rarely two) accessory trichobothria, on external surface, and two on ventral surface. Chela with 26 trichobothria, 10 situated on fixed finger and 16 situated on manus. Twelve (rarely 13) trichobothria with areolae noticeably smaller and setae noticeably shorter than the others (‘‘petite’’): five (rarely six) on patella (d 1, d 2, et 2, esb 2, eb 2, v 3), seven on chela (Db, Esb, Et 4, Et 5, V 1, db, esb ). Leg basitarsi often without prolateral pedal spurs, retrolateral surfaces with short row of tiny spinules distally; telotarsi each with 3–8 subspiniform macrosetae in paired ventrosubmedian rows, usually without ventromedian row of spinules. Sternite VII, ventrolateral carinae absent. Metasomal segments I–IV, dorsosubmedian and ventrolateral carinae usually absent or obsolete; segment V, dorsolateral carinae and, usually, ventrolateral carinae absent or obsolete. Telson (adult) vesicle unmodified to globose; aculeus short to moderate in length.

INCLUDED TAXA: Three genera: Sotanochactas Francke, 1986 , monotypic; Stygochactas , new genus, monotypic; Typhlochactas Mitchell, 1971 , with six species (table 2).

DISTRIBUTION: Endemic to Mexico. Recorded from five states: Oaxaca, Queretaro, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Veracruz (fig. 1B).

ECOLOGY: Sotanochactas , Stygochactas , and three species of Typhlochactas are troglobitic (hypogean). The other three species of Typhlochactas , T. mitchelli , T. sissomi , and T. sylvestris , are humicolous (endogean) ( Mitchell and Peck, 1977; Sissom, 1988; Francke et al., 2009; table 2). The three endogean species are also markedly troglomorphic, however. It is possible that they may inhabit caves, on occasion. A similar ecology was described for Belisarius xambeui , a troglomorphic scorpion from the Pyrenees of France and Spain, and other cave-adapted arthropods, e.g., beetles and crickets ( Auber, 1959; Peck and Thayer, 2003; Sbordoni et al., 2004), which have been collected in leaf litter and also in caves.

Figures

Fig. 1. Map of Mexico, showing the known localities of Typhlochactidae Mitchell, 1971. A. Known localities of Alacraninae, new subfamily: Type locality of Alacran tartarus Francke, 1982, on the Huautla Plateau, Oaxaca (1); Te Cimutaá Cave, Oaxaca, a new record for the genus possibly representing a new species of Alacran Francke, 1982 (2). B. Type localities of Typhlochactinae Mitchell, 1971: Sotanochactas elliotti (Mitchell, 1971), El Sótano de Yerbaniz, San Luis Potosí (1); Stygochactas granulosus (Sissom and Cokendolpher, 1998), Sótano de Poncho, Veracruz (2); Typhlochactas cavicola Francke, 1986, Cueva del Vandalismo, Tamaulipas (3); Typhlochactas mitchelli Sissom, 1988, Cerro Ocote, Oaxaca (4); Typhlochactas reddelli Mitchell, 1968, La Cueva del Ojo de Agua de Tlilapan, Veracruz (5); Typhlochactas rhodesi Mitchell, 1968, La Cueva de la Mina, Tamaulipas (6); Typhlochactas sissomi Francke et al., 2009, Cañada de La Joya, Queretaro (7); Typhlochactas sylvestris Mitchell and Peck, 1977, 25 km S Valle Nacional, Oaxaca (8).