Buthacus mahraouii Lourenço, 2004

Kovařík, František, 2005, Taxonomic position of species of the genus Buthacus Birula, 1908 described by Ehrenberg and Lourenço, and description of a new species (Scorpiones: Buthidae), Euscorpius 28 (28), pp. 1-13 : 6

Buthacus mahraouii Lourenço, 2004 , nomen dubium

Buthacus mahraouii Lourenço, 2004b: 226 .

COMMENTS. Lourenço based this species on a single male from Morocco, near to the border with Algeria northwest of Béni-Abbés and Igli. He concluded that it belongs in the Buthacus leptochelys complex (see Lourenço, 2004b: 226) and prepared a key to the northwestern African species belonging to this complex, in which he incorrectly defined Buthacus leptochelys (see the above introduction and diagnosis of Buthacus leptochelys , and Lourenço, 2004b: 229). Even a more serious problem, however, is fig. 3 in Lourenço (2004b: 227), which shows the position and number of external and internal granules on the dentate margins of the pedipalp chela movable finger in the holotype of Buthacus mahraouii . It is apparent from this figure that the specimen lacks external granules, whose presence determines assignment to the Buthacus leptochelys complex (see Fig. 2 ). Conversely, the absence of these granules determines assignment to the Buthacus arenicola complex ( Fig. 1 and Lourenço, 2004b: 227, fig. 3). Because of unavailability of the MNHN type, I can only speculate about the taxonomic position of Buthacus mahraouii . There appear to be only two possibilities:

1) Fig. 3 of Lourenço (2004b: 227) faithfully depicts the absence of external granules in the holotype of Buthacus mahraouii , in which case Lourenco’s assignment of the species to the Buthacus leptochelys complex is erroneous and B. mahraouii may be a synonym of e.g. Buthacus spatzi (Birula, 1911) in the Buthacus arenicola complex, with which it was not compared.

2) Fig. 3 of Lourenço (2004b: 227) is not a faithful rendition of the situation in the holotype, in which case B. mahraouii belongs in the Buthacus leptochelys complex but possesses characters other than those given in the original description.

Only a careful redescription of the holotype of Buthacus mahraouii can resolve the situation, and until then the name must be regarded as a nomen dubium.

Figures

Figure 3: Buthacus ehrenbergi sp. n., male holotype, dorsal aspect.

Figures 1–2: Movable finger of pedipalp. 1. Buthacus arenicola (Simon, 1885), female from Algeria, FKCP. 2. Buthacus leptochelys (Ehrenberg, 1829), male from Morocco, FKCP.