Pandinus exitialis sudanicus Hirst, 1911: 219

Prendini, Lorenzo, 2016, Redefinition And Systematic Revision Of The East African Scorpion Genus Pandinoides (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae) With Critique Of The Taxonomy Of Pandinus, Sensu Lato, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2016 (407), pp. 1-66 : 57-58

Pandinus exitialis sudanicus Hirst, 1911: 219 . Pandinurus (P.) prendinii Rossi, 2015a: 20, 21,

53, figs. 29–37, syn. nov.

TYPE MATERIAL: Pandinus exitialis sudanicus : Holotype ♀ ( BMNH), Gebel Mts., S of Obeid [North Kordofan], Sudan. Pandinurus (P.) prendinii : Holotype ♀ ( HNHM 1443), Messina [Musina], Transvaal [Limpopo Province], South Africa, 1976, A. Héjja.

DISTRIBUTION: The two new records from South Sudan presented here, while a considerable distance south of the type locality and Kovařík’s (2012: 12) additional record (Lagowa, Kordofan)— both situated in Sudan, not South Sudan, as stated by Kovařík (2012) —are clearly conspecific with the latter based on similar size, coloration, macrosculpture (anastomosing tubercles) on the retrodorsal surface of the pedipalp chela manus in the adult male and female, and counts of pedipalp trichobothria and pro- and retroventral spiniform macrosetae on the telotarsi.

REMARKS: Pandinus exitialis sudanicus Hirst, 1911 , was synonymized with Pandinus magrettii Borelli, 1901 , by Birula (1927: 85). Kovařík (2012: 3, 6) revalidated the taxon and elevated it to the rank of species, a move that appears to be reasonable, based on material examined for the present contribution. The retrodorsal surface of the pedipalp chela manus in the adult male and female of P. sudanicus comprises anastomosing tubercles, as in P. magrettii , rather than conspicuously pointed granules, as in P. exitialis , and the medial lobe on the chela movable finger of the adult male is considerably larger than the other lobes on the finger, as in P. exitialis , which is not the case in P. magrettii .

Rossi (2015a: 20, 21) described Pandinurus (P.) prendinii on the basis of a single female, allegedly from Messina in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, noting its close morphological similarity to P. sudanicus including, for example, the macrosculpture on the retrodorsal surface of the pedipalp chela manus in the adult female, which comprises anastomosing tubercles, evident in Rossi’s (2015a: 53) figures 32 and 33. Two other workers (F. Kovařík, in 1996; B.F. Striffler, in 2002) previously examined the specimen and identified it as “ Pandinus sp.,” probably on account of the erroneous locality data. The meristic data (total body length, pedipalp trichobothrial counts, pectinal tooth counts and counts of spiniform macrosetae in the pro- and retroventral rows of the telotarsi) listed as diagnostic for P. prendinii by Rossi (2015a: 20) fall entirely within the ranges given for P. sudanicus two pages later (table 6). The suggestion that P. prendinii may represent a relictual population of Pandinus, sensu lato in southern Africa, and that, because the putative type locality is 5000 km from the known localities of P. sudanicus , this could justify its recognition as distinct from the latter rests entirely on the grossly mistaken assumption that the locality data are trustworthy, an assumption doubted by others ( Kovařík, 1997). Despite extensive surveys of scorpions throughout southern Africa, including the vicinity of Messina, by the author, there are no credible records of Pandinus, sensu lato , from south of the Zambezi River, as noted by Prendini et al. (2003; also see Prendini, 2005), and especially not south of the Limpopo River. In view of the evidence, the following new synonym is presented: Pandinurus (P.) prendinii Rossi, 2015 = Pandinurus (P.) sudanicus ( Hirst, 1911) , syn. nov.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL EXAMINED: SOUTH SUDAN: Boma State: Boma National Park [06°29′N 033°55′E], base camp, 8.iv.1983, T. Tear, 2 ♂ (AMNH). Eastern Equatoria State: Torit [04°25′N 032°34′E], Equatoria, Anglo- Egyptian Sudan, 2000 ft, xii.1949, H. Hoogstraal, 2 ♂, 6 ♀, 2 subad. ♂, 3 juv. ♂, 2 juv. ♀ (FMNH). SUDAN: Blue Nile State: Ingessana Hills, SW of Roseires, 11°27′N 033°59′E, xii.1968, J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson, 1 ♀ (MRAC 134.601).