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3 November 2023 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
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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.

Bruno A. Buzatto, Huon L. Clark, Mark S. Harvey, and Erich S. Volschenk "Two new species of burrowing scorpions (Urodacidae: Urodacus) from the Pilbara region of Western Australia with identical external morphology," Australian Journal of Zoology 71(1), 1-18, (3 November 2023). https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO23018
Received: 15 May 2023; Accepted: 5 October 2023; Published: 3 November 2023
KEYWORDS
Arachnology
arid uplands
Iurida
Scorpiones
Scorpionoidea
sexual sting
short-range endemism
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