Liocheles australasiae (Fabricius, 1775)

Kovařík, František, Ranawana, Kithsiri B., Sanjeewa Jayarathne, V. A., Karunarathna, Sanjaya & Ullrich, Alexander, 2018, Scorpions of Sri Lanka (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part II. Family Hormuridae, Euscorpius 258, pp. 1-5 : 1-5

Liocheles australasiae (Fabricius, 1775)

( Figs. 1–14)

Liocheles australasiae: Fet, 2000: 395–397 (in part, complete reference and synonymy list until 2000); Monod & Prendini, 2014: 25–26.

TYPE LOCALITY AND TYPE REPOSITORY. "in insulis Oceani pacifi"; BMNH ( The Natural History Museum , London, United Kingdom) .

SRI LANKAN MATERIAL EXAMINED. Sri Lanka, Southern Province, Galle District, Bentota , 06°24'27.5"N 80°01'29.2"E, 3 m a.s.l., 18.XII.2016, 3♀, leg . V. A. Sanjeewa Jayarathne , FKCP (the first author collection). The specimens were found inside a stone wall and under old bark of branches and in dry leaves on the land near a domestic tea cultivation field; also under the flower pots in home garden.

DIAGNOSIS. Total length 22–36 mm. Patella of pedipalps with 3 ventral trichobothria ( Fig. 3); trichobothrium Eb3 located in base of chela near trichobothria Db, Eb1, Eb2, and Esb ( Fig. 2). Color uniformly reddish to yellowish brown, telson always yellow. Not troglobitic, median and three lateral pigmented eyes present. Chelicerae yellowish brown, reticulate. Carapace lacks carinae, punctate and bears straight median longitudinal groove. Pectinal teeth number 4–8. Metasomal segments sparsely setose and finely punctate, with smooth and rounded dorsal and lateral margins. Pedipalps covered by granules, dorsal surface of chela and femur of pedipalp granulated densely by bigger granules. Mainly ventral surface of pedipalp punctate ( Figs. 1–8). In contrast to female, in males fingers of chela con-spicuously flexed, but most of populations are parthenogenetic.