Buthidae C. L. Koch, 1837

Sherwood, Danniella & de Armas, Luis F., 2023, On some teratological scorpions in the Natural History Museum, London and checklist of the scorpiological literature on morphological anomalies (Arachnida: Scorpiones), Euscorpius 381, pp. 1-20 : 1-14

Family Buthidae C. L. Koch, 1837

Hottentotta scaber (Ehrenberg, 1828) ( Figures 1 –2)

MATERIAL EXAMINED. 2♂ ( NHMUK 015211780 ), BMNH 1890.12.4.1–2 [old accession number], Perim Island , [ Yemen] .

ANOMALIES. One of the males has the left leg III with two claws at the end of a short and modified femur; the other segments (i.e. patella, tibia and tarsi) are lacking ( Fig. 1 ). The second specimen has a notably deformed left leg IV without claws and only having the coxa, trochanter and a very short, modified, article which does not resemble any normal segment (Fig. 2).

REMARKS. A leg with claws inserted at the end of the femur was recorded for Centruroides griseus (see Santiago-Blay, 1986). Also, González-Sponga (2004: 60, 61, fig. 6e) described a subadult male of Broteochactas garciai having leg I with only coxa, trochanter, and a stump-like femur, without claws; nevertheless, in H. scaber the distal anomalous article is clearly undifferentiated and subconic.

Tityus insignis (Pocock, 1889) (Figure 3)

MATERIAL EXAMINED. 1♀ ( NHMUK 015211784 ), BMNH 1889.4.13.23 [old accession number], St. Lucia, [Lesser Antilles] .

ANOMALY. The left leg III of this specimen has a single claw at the apex of the patella, with absence of the tibia, and tarsi (Fig. 3).

REMARKS. Legs lacking the tibia and tarsi, with the claws implanted in the patella, have also been recorded for at least three other Neotropical species, but always having two claws, not a single claw ( Armas, 1977: fig. 2 C; González-Sponga, 2004: figs. 3e, 6c). In two other species, the patella is the last segment, but it has no claws (González-Sponga, 2004: figs. 6f, 8d). Armas (2018: 4, 6, fig. 3) described the right leg I of the female holotype of Microtityus eustatia Armas, 2018 as having, after the femur, a short unidentified segment (modified patella?) with claws.

Family Caraboctonidae Kraepelin, 1905 Hadruroides sp. ( Figures 8–9 )

MATERIAL EXAMINED. 1♂ ( NHMUK 015211785 ), The Andes, [coll.] P. O. Simons ; 1♀ ( NHMUK 015211786 ), The Andes, [coll.] P. O. Simons .

ANOMALIES. A male and female of Hadruroides sp. from an unspecified locality in the Andes both present deformities. The male specimen has the right chelicera malformed and tiny (Figs. 4–7). The female has the left pedipalp chela with very short movable finger, which also has an irregular row of denticles and absence of a basal lobe ( Figs. 8–9 ).

REMARKS. Pedipalp chela with one of the fingers shorter than the other, and also having anomalies in the number and pattern of the rows of denticles, has been described for some species ( Lourenço, 1984: fig. 14; Crucitti & Chine, 1994: 19–20, fig. 2; González-Sponga, 2004: 61, figs. 6b, 7b).

Family Hormuridae Kraepelin, 1905 Opisthacanthus validus Thorell, 1876

( Figures 10–11 )

MATERIAL EXAMINED. 1♂ ( NHMUK 015211782 ), ‘ King Wi Town 76.70’ [sic] .

ANOMALIES. The left leg IV is anomalous; it has no tarsi, instead a single claw emerges from a malformed tibia ( Figs. 10–11 ).

Family Scorpionidae Latreille, 1802 Deccanometrus phipsoni (Pocock, 1893) ( Figure 12 )

MATERIAL EXAMINED. 1♀ ( NHMUK 015211778 ), BMNH 1894.8.21.4 [old accession number], Millgivi Gille, [coll.] Mr. Daler .

ANOMALY. Left leg I has fused tarsi with deformed left-hand claw, its apex is blunted and it is marginally shorter than the normal right-hand claw ( Fig. 12 ).

Heterometrus longimanus (Herbst 1800) ( Figure 13 )

MATERIAL EXAMINED. 1 ♀ ( NHMUK 015211779 ), BMNH 1888.22 [old accession number], N. W. Borneo .

ANOMALY. An adult female which possesses an anomalous right-hand comb, very short, with only six teeth ( Fig. 13 ); left pectinal comb has 17 teeth.

REMARKS. Similar anomaly has been recorded for other scorpions (Crucitti & Chine, 1994: 21, fig. 3; González-Sponga, 2004: 55, fig. 2).

Pandinurus pallidus (Kraepelin, 1894) ( Figure 14 )

MATERIAL EXAMINED. 1♀ ( NHMUK 015211781 ), BMNH 1897.6.20.1 [old accession number], Banara [= Barawa], Somalia .

ANOMALY. The left leg IV of this female specimen lacks the tarsi, and a claw is emergent from the tibia ( Fig. 14 ).

REMARKS. We suspect “Banara” is a phonetic misspelling of Barawa, which is the type locality of this species. Misspelled locality names are common in arachnid specimens which were accessioned in the Victorian era (DS pers. obs.). Thus, this specimen may be topotypic.

Sahyadrimetrus scaber (Thorell, 1876) ( Figures 15–17 )

MATERIAL EXAMINED. 1♀ ( NHMUK 015211783 ), Travancore , [ India], [coll.] Ferguson .

ANOMALY. The left telotarsus has a malformed and shortened tarsal claw ( Figs. 15–17 ).

REMARKS. An anomaly to one of the tarsal claws was also found in D. phipsoni (see above).

Figures

Figures 1–7: Figures 1–2. Anomalous adult males of Hottentotta scaber (Ehrenberg, 1828), leg III (left-hand side) (1) and leg IV (right-hand side) (2). Figure 3: Anomalous leg III (left-hand side), adult female of Tityus insignis (Pocock, 1889). Figures 4–7: Anomalous adult male Hadruroides sp. Figure 4. Anomalous chelicera, lateral view, Figure 5. Normal chelicera, lateral view. Figures 6–7. Chelicerae, dorsal (6) and ventral (7) views. Scale bars = 1mm.

Figures 8–13: Figures 8–9. Anomalous pedipalp chela (left-hand side) of adult female Hadruroides sp., in external (8) and internal (9) views. Figures 10–11. Anomalous leg IV (left-hand side) of adult male Opisthacanthus validus Thorell, 1876, general view of leg (10), close-up of anomalous tibia (11). Figure 12. Anomalous claw arising from telotarsus (left-hand side) of adult female of Deccanometrus phipsoni (Pocock, 1893) next to normal telotarsus. Figure 13. Anomalous pectines of adult female Heterometrus longimanus (Herbst, 1800). Scale bars = 1mm.

Figures 14–19: Figure. 14. Anomalous leg IV (left-hand side) of adult female Pandinurus pallidus (Kraepelin, 1894). Figures 15–17. Anomalous telotarsus (left-hand side) of adult female Sahyadrimetrus scaber (Thorell, 1876), three different lateral views. Figure 18–19. Anomalous leg IV (right-hand side) of adult female Chihuahuanus crassimanus (Pocock 1898), general view of leg (18), close-up of anomaly (19). Scale bars = 1mm.