Orthochirus scrobiculosus ( Grube, 1873 )

Kovařík, FrantIšek, Fet, Victor & Yağmur, Ersen Aydın, 2020, Further review of Orthochirus Karsch, 1892 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Asia: taxonomic position of O. melanurus, O. persa, O. scrobiculosus, and description of six new species, Euscorpius 318, pp. 1-73 : 52-60

Orthochirus scrobiculosus ( Grube, 1873)

( Figures 274–295 , 343 , 352 , Table 2)

Androctonus scrobiculosus Grube, 1873: 56–57 . http: //zoobank. org/ urn : lsid: zoobank. org: act: 76F764E6- 0ED1-4800-B953-05D701DA27B4

SYNONYMS:

= Buthus schneideri L. Koch, 1878: 61–63 , taf. II, fig. 4 (type locality and type repository: Turkmenistan, Balkan Province, Krasnovodsk [now Türkmensbashi, 40.02°N 52.97°E], BMHN) (syn. by Birula, 1898: 281 with Butheolus melanurus ) ( Fig. 352 ).

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= Butheolus conchini Simon, 1889: 386 (type locality and type repository: Turkmenistan, Balkan Province, Bely-bugor [Ak-Tepe, 9.3 miles N of Chikishlyar, 37.57°N 53.9052°E]; 1♂ (lectotype, designated here), MNHN RS-1761, 1♂ (paralectotype), GNMT No 2584 (syn. by Birula, 1898: 281 and Birula, 1905a: 125 with Butheolus melanurus ).

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REFERENCES: Orthodactylus schneideri (in part): Karsch, 1886: 76; Pocock,

1889: 117–118, pl. XIII, fig. 5; Kraepelin, 1891: 215–217. Butheolus conchini: Kraepelin, 1899: 36 . Butheolus schneideri: Simon, 1889: 386 . Butheolus Conschini : Birula, 1900a: 13. Butheolus melanurus conchini: Birula, 1900b: 374 ; Birula,

1904: 32; Birula, 1905a: 126. Butheolus scrobiculosus scrobiculosus: Birula, 1909: 359 . Orthochirus scrobiculosus (in part): Birula, 1917: 241; Fet

& Lowe, 2000: 196–197 (complete reference list until

1998). Orthochirus scrobiculosus scrobiculosus: Birula, 1917: 241 ;

Birula, 1918: 39; Fet, 1989: 117; Fet, 1994: 129; Fet &

Lowe, 2000: 198 (complete reference list until 1998). Orthochirus conchini: Levy & Amitai, 1980: 94 .

TYPE LOCALITY AND TYPE DEPOSITORY. Turkmenistan, Balkan Province, Krasnovodsk [now Türkmensbashi, 40.02°N 52.97°E] ; MNHW.

TYPE MATERIAL EXAMINED. Turkmenistan [not Lenkoran, now Länkarän in Azerbaijan, as erroneously stated in Grube, 1873], Balkan Province, Krasnovodsk [now Türkmensbashi, 40.02°N 52.97°E], 1♀ (lectotype, designated here), leg. Dr. [Gustav] Radde, [June 1870] , MNHW No. 531.

OTHER TYPE MATERIAL ( NOT EXAMINED). Turkmenistan, Balkan Province, Krasnovodsk [now Türkmensbashi], 1 paralectotype (designated here), sex unknown, leg. Sievers, [June 1870] , GNMT.

DIAGNOSIS (♀). Total length of female lectotype 36.39 mm.

Coloration of carapace, tergites, and metasoma reddish black to black; sternites yellowish green to brown; pedipalps and legs yellow. Trichobothrium d 2 on dorsal surface of pedipalp femur absent. Pectinal teeth number 17 in female lectotype. Movable finger of pedipalps with 8–9 rows of denticles, 7–8 ID and 0–1 OD. Dorsal carinae on pedipalp patella developed and smooth. Pedipalp femur dorsal smooth. Metasoma I–II with 10 carinae, metasoma III with 6 carinae, metasoma IV–V with 2 dorsolateral and ventrolateral carinae present. Ventral carinae of metasoma I–III consist of granules in one or two rows. Metasoma V ventrally and laterally with fine punctation developed; metasoma I–V ventrally and laterally finely granulated with punctation reduced. Metasoma V dorsal surface mesially smooth; metasoma I dorsal surface with 11–22 granules. Tergites roughly to finely granulated. Sternite VII granulated, with four granulated carinae present. Pedipalp, metasoma and telson glabrous. Moderate to strong tibial spurs present on legs III and IV. Ratio length/width of metasoma V 1.21 in female lectotype.

HISTORY OF STUDY. For more than 100 years, the name O. scrobiculosus was used as an umbrella for all Central Asian Orthochirus (see e.g. Fet, 1989; Fet & Lowe, 2000). Our present revision for the first time reveals that it is applicable, of all available material, only to the populations inhabiting the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea in the southwestern Turkmenistan, not far from the Iranian border. Other lowland desert populations in Central Asia belong to O. melanurus ( Kessler 1874) ( Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan), which is restored here to species status (see above), O. gromovi Kovařík, 2004 (eastern Turkmenistan), or a new species described here as O. formozovi sp. n. (southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan).

The convoluted story of Grube’s single specimen, which survived two world wars, is nothing short of amazing.Along with the story of O. melanurus (see above), it personifies 150 years of zoological research in Central Asia done by many enthusiastic naturalists of diverse backgrounds. Adolph Grube (1812–1880) was a German zoologist at the Universität Breslau (then in Silesia, Germany; now Museum of Natural History Wrocław) (MNHW). This is the only scorpion described by Grube who worked on various animal groups, mainly on Polychaeta, and was one of the early explorers of the Adriatic Sea.

Grube’s description was very brief; it mentioned that his specimen came from “Dr. Radde”. Birula (1909) was the first researcher who re-examined this specimen, loaned to him from Breslau by Wilhelm Kükenthal. Grube obtained a small collection of “mostly Caucasian” arthropods from Gustav Radde (1831–1903). Radde was a famous Russian naturalist and geographer of German extraction who in 1865 founded the Caucasian Museum in Tiflis (now Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia). Grube (1873: 57) also mentioned that his new species was found in “ Lenkoran, at the altitude of 4000 feet ” This was an obvious error; Lenkoran is an area in the southeastern Russian Transcaucasia (now Azerbaijan), and there are no Orthochirus species in Transcaucasia. Another, large black scorpion in Radde’s collection, identified by Grube (1873: 56) as “ Androctonus bicolor ” was Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807) that indeed originated from the southern Transcaucasia (now Azerbaijan) (see Fet, 1989: 78). The original label, which was glued on the jar, seen by Birula (1909: 368), and probably written in Grube’s hand, said “ Androctonus scrobiculosus Gr. G. Radde Transcauc. Krasnowarsk. ” This label conflated “Transcauc[asia]” with Krasnovodsk [misspelled as “Krasnowarsk”], which is located in Transcaspia (not Transcaucasia!). Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbashi, Turkmenistan) was, and still is, the most important port on the southeastern shore of the Caspian Sea, founded in 1869 as the Russian Empire began its annexation of the Transcaspian Region, now Turkmenistan.

Birula (1909) explained the confusion in detail. He ruled that Grube’s species was the senior synonym of three other taxa: Androctonus melanurus Kessler, 1874 ; Buthus schneideri L. Koch, 1878 ; and Butheolus conchini Simon, 1889 . After transferring Grube’s species to Butheolus, Birula (1909: 359) assigned to it four subspecies: nominotypical B. s. scrobiculosus (“western Transcaspia”). B. s. melanurus (“eastern Transcaspia, northeastern Persia ”), B. s. concolor, and B. s. persa . Later ( Birula, 1917, 1918) he transferred this species to the genus Orthochirus .

Grube’s specimen from Krasnovodsk was clearly collected by Radde himself in June 1870. As soon as Russian troops established themselves in Krasnovodsk in 1869, Radde was tasked by the Imperial Geographic Society with a geographic and biological survey of the newly annexed territory. Arriving from Tiflis to Baku (now Azerbaijan) right before Easter 1870, Radde and his associate Sievers, however, had to wait for a military convoy. Meanwhile they decided to collect in Lenkoran, the southeastern corner of Transcaucasia (hence, ‘Lenkoran’ in Grube’s text!). This unexpected delay lasted for almost two months. Finally, the travelers crossed the Caspian Sea and arrived to Krasnovodsk on 5 June 1870 [“Old Style” (Julian), 17 June “New Style” (Gregorian)], in the scorching heat of the Transcaspian summer. They were not allowed to venture more than 3 miles from the military camp; collecting for three weeks, Radde and Sievers listed many reptiles, insects, “many wasps and even more scorpions” (Radde & Sievers, 1871: 221).

Birula (1905a: 125) noted that the Caucasian Museum (now GNMT) collection had several specimens from Krasnovodsk, of which one had a label “Transcaspi-Gebiet, Sievers leg.”, i.e. was collected by Radde and Sievers in 1870 ( Birula, 1905a: 125). Another specimen from the same series was obviously sent to Grube and became the type of Androctonus scrobiculosus . Since the second specimen existed from the same collection, the MNHW female is not a holotype but a syntype. We designate it here as a lectotype, and the GNMT specimen mentioned by Birula (1905a) (sex unknown) as a paralectotype.

Clearly without any knowledge of Grube’s description, Kessler (1874) described Androctonus melanurus (see in detail above), which for the most of the next century was considered a synonym or a subspecies of O. scrobiculosus . The syntype series of A. melanurus in fact included several specimens from Krasnovodsk (ZISP-690, now lost). Kessler’s publication (which was in Russian) remained unknown to the European researchers. Four years later, a renowned arachnologist Ludwig Koch (1825– 1908) from Nuremberg published ( Koch, 1878) a description of Buthus schneideri , again from Krasnovodsk (see our Fig. 352 ). This specimen was collected in 1875 by the geographer Oscar Schneider (1841–1903) during his six-month expedition, which provided rich zoological materials, mainly from the Caucasus, but also from Krasnovodsk across the Caspian Sea. Several of Koch’s new spider species originate from there while others are from the Caucasus, including Lenkoran.

Finally, in 1889, the most famous arachnologist of all time, Eugène Simon (1848–1924), published the first paper specifically devoted to the Transcaspian arachnids ( Simon, 1889). He studied collections made in 1886–1887 by the expedition led again by the same Dr. Gustav Radde of the Caucasian Museum who supplied Grube’s specimen from Krasnovodsk collected in 1870. A detailed report was published ( Radde, 1886). Simon (1889) described Butheolus conchini , collected at “Bely- Bugor” (Russ. Белый бугор, ‘White Hill’) on 27 April 1886 [“Old Style” (Julian), 10 May “New Style” (Gregorian)] by the geologist Afanasy M. Konshin (1854–after 1919), one of the early oil prospectors in the Caucasus and Transcaspia. This locality was erroneously interpreted by Fet (1989) as “Akdepe, Ashkhabad Region”, Turkmenistan (a non-existing toponym). In fact, this name refers to a sandy hill (in Turkmen, Ak-Tepe, or Ak-Patlaukh), overlooking the Caspian Sea that served as a landmark for ship pilots. It was noted as early as 1836 by the very first Russian topographic survey led by Grigory Karelin (1801–1872) ( Blaramberg, 1875). The landmark is located at 9.3 miles N of Chikishlyar (37.57°N 53.9052°E), still an important post on the Iranian border ( Fig. 343 ).

Birula (1905a: 119), examining the collection of the Caucasian Museum (now GNMT), noted an original specimen of Butheolus conchini Simon from Bely-Bugor (a male with 20-21 pectinal teeth). This specimen was personally examined by one of the authors (V.F.) in 1985; it was labeled “ 27.04.1886, Butheolus melanurus conchini, No 2584 , det. A. Birula” ( Fet, 1989: 113). This date is the same as listed by Simon (1889: 386) who based his description on another male (with 20-22 pectinal teeth), now deposited in MNHN. Since the second specimen existed from the same type series, the MNHN male is not a holotype but a syntype. We designate it here as a lectotype, and the GNMT No 2584 male as a paralectotype.

DISTRIBUTION. Turkmenistan ( Fig. 343 ).

Figures

Figure 343. Geographic distribution of the Orthochirus spp. found from Turkey to India. An approximate area where the lectotype of O. melanurus was collected is marked by red ellipse.

Figure 352. Buthus schneideri L. Koch, 1878, a junior synonym of Orthochirus scrobiculosus (Grube, 1873), reproduced from Koch (1878, Taf. II).

Figures 274–276. Orthochirus scrobiculosus, lectotype female, dorsal (274) and ventral (275) views and MNHW label (276) (not the original one, ‘Lenkoran’ misspelled as ‘Lenkoan’). Scale bar: 10 mm (274–275).

Figures 277–282. Orthochirus scrobiculosus, lectotype female,carapace and tergites (271), sternopectinal region and sternites (278), metasoma V and telson lateral (279), and metasoma and telson, lateral (280), ventral (281), and dorsal (282) views. Scale bar: 10 mm (280–282).

Figures 283–295: Orthochirus scrobiculosus, lectotype female. Figures 283–293. Segments of pedipalps.Pedipalp chela, dorsal (283), external (284), and ventral (285) views. Pedipalp patella, dorsal (286), external (287), and ventral (288) views. Pedipalp femur and trochanter, dorsal (289) and ventral (290) views. Pedipalp chela, movable (291, 293) and fixed (292) fingers dentate margins. Figures 294–295. Metasoma II–V and telson, ventral (294) and dorsal (295) views under UV light. The trichobothrial pattern is indicated in Figures 283–287, 289 (white circles).