Two new species of burrowing scorpions (Urodacidae: Urodacus) from the Pilbara region of Western Australia with identical external morphology†

Bruno A. Buzatto; Huon L. Clark; Mark S. Harvey; Erich S. Volschenk

doi:10.1071/ZO23018

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Next Contents Vol 71(1)

Two new species of burrowing scorpions (Urodacidae: Urodacus) from the Pilbara region of Western Australia with identical external morphology^†

Bruno A. Buzatto

^A ^B ^C ^D ^* , Huon L. Clark ^B ^C , Mark S. Harvey

^C ^D and Erich S. Volschenk

^C ^E ^F

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Sturt Road, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia.

^B Bennelongia Environmental Consultants, 5 Bishop Street, Jolimont, WA 6014, Australia.

^C Collections & Research, Western Australian Museum, 49 Kew Street, Welshpool, WA 6106, Australia.

^D Adjunct, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.

^E Alacran Environmental Science, Perth, WA, Australia.

^F Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: bruno.buzatto@flinders.edu.au

Handling Editor: Steven Cooper

Australian Journal of Zoology 71, ZO23018 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO23018

Submitted: 15 May 2023 Accepted: 5 October 2023 Published: 3 November 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Two new species of urodacid scorpion are described from the Pilbara region in Western Australia, where they are both patchily distributed along creek lines in the north-east of the region. Urodacus uncinus sp. nov. and Urodacus lunatus sp. nov. are indistinguishable based on external morphology: adults are medium-sized, yellow burrowing scorpions with remarkable sexual dimorphism in the telson, in which males have a uniquely swollen vesicle and an aculeus that is more strongly curved than other known species of Urodacus. The species are superficially similar to Urodacus similis L.E. Koch, 1977 and Urodacus yaschenkoi Birula, 1903 in the morphology of the first four metasomal segments, which are extremely short and not much longer than high. The two new species can only be discerned from each other based on the morphology of their hemispermatophores, which highlights the extremely conserved morphology of species in the genus and suggests that many new species await description with careful examination of their genitalia.

Keywords: Arachnology, arid uplands, Iurida, Scorpiones, Scorpionoidea, sexual sting, short-range endemism, taxonomy.

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