A new species of Scorpio Linnaeus, 1758 from Algeria (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae) and a new case of vicariance

Arachnides 113.pdf

Fig. 10. Scorpio atakor sp. nov. male holotype, alive in its natural habitat.

Eric Ythier and co-workers recently published an article describing a new species of Scorpio Linnaeus, 1758(Scorpionidae) from Atakor volcanic field in the Hoggar massif in the south of Algeria.

Scorpio atakor Ythier, Sadine, Bengaid & Lourenço, 2024

The authors also raise Scorpio trarasensis Bouisset & Larrouy, 1962 to species status after it previously was synonymized with Scorpio maurus maurus Linnaeus, 1758 (it was originally described as a subspecies of S. maurus.

Abstract:
A new species of Scorpio Linnaeus, 1758 is described from the Atakor volcanic field in the Hoggar massif, located in the South of Algeria. Scorpio atakor sp. nov. most certainly represents a vicariant element of Scorpio tassili Lourenço & Rossi, 2016, species equally described from a massif formation, the Tassili N’Ajjer, in the South of Algeria. Both species are distributed in high altitudes in these massifs. Scorpio trarasensis Bouisset & Larrouy, 1962 stat. rev., stat. nov. is also restored from its synonymy with Scorpio maurus maurus Linnaeus, 1758 and raised to species level. The number of confirmed species of Scorpio in Algeria is raised to six.

Reference:
Ythier E, Sadine SE, Bengaid Y, Lourenco WR. A new species of Scorpio Linnaeus, 1758 from Algeria (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae) and a new case of vicariance. Arachnides. 2024(113):1-11. [Open Access]

https://scorpion-files.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-new-species-of-scorpio-from-algeria.html