Rhopalurusinae Bücherl, 1971

Lauren A. Esposito, Humberto Y. Yamaguti, Cláudio A. Souza, Ricardo Pinto-Da-Rocha & Lorenzo Prendini, 2017, Systematic Revision of the Neotropical Club-Tailed Scorpions, Physoctonus, Rhopalurus, and Troglorhopalurus, Revalidation of Heteroctenus, and Descriptions of Two New Genera and Three New Species (Buthidae: Rhopalurusinae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 415, pp. 1-134 : 8

Subfamily Rhopalurusinae Bücherl, 1971

Rhopalurinae Bücherl, 1971: 325 , type genus Rhopalurus Thorell, 1876 , by original designation; Fet and Lowe, 2000: 55, 57; Fet et al., 2003b: 23, 24.

Rhopalurusinae Fet et al., 2003b: 23, 24; Loria and Prendini, 2014: 14, 21.

DIAGNOSIS: The following combination of characters distinguishes the species of subfamily Rhopalurusinae, New World Buthidae with accessory (supernumerary) denticles in median denticle rows of pedipalp chela fingers, from other buthid scorpions: chelicerae, movable finger with transverse row of granules; cheliceral fixed finger with dorsobasal setation; pedipalp femur, dorsal surface trichobothria with α-configuration, trichobothrium d 2 situated on prolateral surface; pedipalp patella trichobothrium d 3 situated retrolateral to dorsomedian carina; pedipalp chela, fixed and movable fingers, median denticle rows with pro- and retrolateral accessory (supernumerary) denticles; legs without tibial spurs; leg I telotarsus, prolateral pedal spur bifurcating (reduced in Physoctonus ).

INCLUDED TAXA: This New World buthid subfamily includes seven genera ( Centruroides , Heteroctenus, Ischnotelson , gen. nov., Jaguajir , gen. nov., Physoctonus , Rhopalurus , and Troglorhopalurus ), 108 described species, and three subspecies.

DISTRIBUTION: Subfamily Rhopalurusinae is endemic to the New World and distributed from North America (the midwestern United States) throughout Central America and the Caribbean islands (Greater and Lesser Antilles) to centralnorthern South America and the Galapagos Islands.

REMARKS: Bücherl’s (1971) original name, Rhopalurinae, was a junior homonym of Rhopaluridae Stunkard, 1937 , derived from the orthonectid genus Rhopalura Girard, 1877 , and thus unavailable ( Fet and Lowe, 2000). A 2003 ruling by the International Commision on Zoological Nomenclature amended Rhopalurinae to Rhopalurusinae Bücherl, 1971 ( Fet et al., 2003b).