Mesobuthus vesiculatus (Pocock, 1899)

Vignoli, Valerio, Kovařík, František & Crucitti, Pierangelo, 2003, Scorpiofauna of Kashan (Esfahan Province, Iran) (Arachnida: Scorpiones), Euscorpius 9, pp. 1-7 : 3-5

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2003.vol2003.iss9.1
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4648524
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/83251E07-FFD0-FFEA-FC02-FA10FE0151C8
treatment provided by	Carolina
scientific name	Mesobuthus vesiculatus (Pocock, 1899)
status

Treatment

Mesobuthus vesiculatus (Pocock, 1899) View in CoL

Specimens. 1 adult ♀, No. 10 ( FKCP) , 1 adult ♂, No. 11 ( FKCP), Kashan city, 11 August 2000 ; 1 adult ♀, No. 22, Main Abad, 11 August 2000; leg. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti .

Comments. Scorpions of medium size (total length: No. 10, 56 mm; 11, 46 mm; 22, 51 mm). The type locality of this species (“Astracan”, Iran) is not clear (Fet & Lowe, 2000). Apart from the types, there are only specimens identified by Whittick as Buthus gabrielis Werner, 1929 , a junior synonym of M. vesiculatus . Fet & Lowe (2000: 181) listed specimens from Teheran and Comments. Androctonus amoreuxi baluchicus (Pocock, 1900) listed for the region by Kovarík (1997: 39) was an immature specimen that subsequently turned out to be an atypically colored Androctonus crassicauda . Deghani et al. (1998) listed for the region also Orthochirus scrobiculosus (Grube, 1873) . This is probably a case of mistaken identity as well, as the record appears to concern a hitherto undescribed species of Orthochirus . The second author (FK) is revising this genus and his work indicates several new species from Iran.

Isfahan ( Esfahan). Kashan is located between these two towns.

These specimens were compared by one of us ( FK) with the paratype (No. 1893.10.29.6) of Mesobuthus vesiculatus from the Natural History Museum, London. The species is well characterized by its inflated telson and a very short aculeus .