1995. The Journal of Arachnology 23:100—110 DISTRIBUTIONS OF THE SCORPIONS CENTRUROIDES VITTATUS (SAY) AND CENTRUROIDES HENTZI (BANKS) IN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO (SCORPIONES, BUTHIDAE) Rowland M . Shelley: North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, P . O. Box 29555, Raleigh, North Carolina 27626-0555 USA W. David Sissom: Department of Biology & Geosciences, West Texas A & M University, P. O. Box 808, Canyon, Texas 79016-0001 US A ABSTRACT . Specific locality records are presented to define the distributions of the scorpions Centruroides vittatus (Say) and C. hentzi (Banks) in North America. The former occurs in the Central Plains as far north a s Thayer County, Nebraska ; the Rio Grande and Sangre de Cristo Mountains form the western distributiona l boundary, and the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers essentially do likewise on the east . Centruroides vittatus occurs just across the latter watercourses in Holt County, Missouri, and Monroe and Randolph counties, Illinois , range extensions that probably can be attributed to rafting or natural alterations in the rivers' courses . Other occurrences east of the Mississippi River, in northern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi an d North Carolina, are associated with cities and are mostly far outside what we consider the natural range ; such records are regarded as human introductions . One of these apparently represents a viable reproducing population in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Likewise, records far west of the Rio Grande, in Arizona and California, ar e interpreted as introductions . Centruroides vittatus traverses the Rio Grande south of Texas and occurs in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas, Mexico. Centruroides hentzi, previously known only from Florida in the United States, occurs in Mobile and Baldwin counties, Alabama, and in the southern tier o f counties in Georgia. Occurrences of C. hentzi in Durham, Carteret, and Brunswick counties, North Carolina , Charleston County, South Carolina, and Harris and Muscogee counties, Georgia, are considered to represen t accidental human importations, although it is also possible that the more proximal ones are peripheral isolates . The scorpion fauna of the United States eas t west of the Fall Zone as far north as the Ohi o of the Mississippi River is depauperate in com- River in central Kentucky (Shelley 1994a) . parison to that of the southwest. According to Say (1821) described "Buthus vittatus" from Muma (1967), five species — Tityus floridanus the "sea islands" of Georgia, but his type spec- Banks, Isometrus maculatus (DeGeer), Centru- imen(s) are lost, and this name, long associate d roides gracilis (Latreille), C. hentzi (Banks), and with the common midwestern species of Centru- C. keysi Muma — occur in Florida . Presently, T. roides, was formally assigned to it (Opinion 1680 , floridanus is a synonym of T. dasyurus Pocock, 1992) in response to the petition by Stockwell & from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (Lour - Levi (1989), as subsequently modified by re- env) & Franke 1984), and C. keysi is considere d spondent comments (Gentry et al. 1991). As part a synonym of C. guanensis Frangillo, from Cuba, of this opinion, a neotype of B. vittatus was des- Hispaniola, and the Bahamas (de Armas 1981). ignated from Kinney County, Texas, instead of The first two species are known in Florida only Georgia. Say's locality record plausibly refers t o from single individuals ostensibly collected at C. hentzi, which occurs statewide in Florida, Key West. These records are questionable, and (Muma 1967), but up to now is not supporte d C. gracilis, hentzi and guanensis are the only by preserved specimens . Centruroides hentzi and scorpions that will be encountered frequently i n vittatus have been introduced into North Caro- the state, if not the only ones actually occurring lina (Shelley 1994b), and newspaper articles have there. Elsewhere in the East, the only known na- reported scorpions from Kiawah Island and Isle tive scorpion is Vaejovis carolinianus (Beauvois), of Palms, near Charleston, South Carolina an upland species occurring primarily north and (Langley 1991, 1994) . These two scorpions an, 100 SHELLEY & SISSOM—CENTRUROIDES VITTATUS & C. HENTZI 101 1 Figures 1—3 .—Comparisons between Centruroides vittatus and C. hentzi in color patttern . 1, 2, Dorsal views of carapace and chelicerae of C. vittatus; 3, Same for C. hentzi. readily distinguished at any life stage by the char- Guerrero, Matamoros, and San Fernando in Ta- acters in Table 1, which also serve to distinguis h maulipas. C. vittatus from C. guanensis (= C. keysi). Dif- It is our purpose here to place the new sample s ferences in the pigmentations of the chelicera e on record, update the known distributions of these and carapaces, and in the configurations of th e scorpions in the United States and Mexico, an d telsons, are shown in Figs. 1-5. provide additional habitat information based o n While recently examining museum specimens, notations on vial labels . Acronyms for sources we encountered samples of C. hentzi from south- of preserved material are as follows : AMNH - ern Alabama and Georgia, thus establishing it s American Museum of Natural History, New occurrence north and west of Florida. The mu- York, New York ; ANSP - Academy of Natural seum holdings also included numerous new re - Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; CAS - Cal - cords of C. vittatus that enable a detailed de- ifornia Academy of Sciences, San Francisco ; CC scription of its distribution . This distribution has - Biology Department, Columbus College, Co- been generally described as Louisiana west of th e lumbus, Georgia; CIM - Cumberland Island Mu - Mississippi River to New Mexico east of the Rio seum, St. Marys, Georgia; FMNH - Field Mu- Grande, and from the Central Plains of the Unit- seum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois ; FSCA ed States to northern Mexico (Stahnke & Calo s - Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Gaines- 1977; Stockwell & Levi 1989 ; Shelley 1994b) . ville; INHS - Illinois Natural History Survey, However, it is striking to note that, aside from Champaign; LSU - Entomology Department , Las Vegas, San Miguel County, New Mexic o Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge ; MCZ (Banks 1901); Cleveland, Garvin, and Seminole - Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard counties, Oklahoma (cited as Centrurus caroli- University, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; MEM - nianus by Banks et al. 1932); the Wichita Moun- Mississippi Entomological Museum, Mississipp i tains, Comanche County, Oklahoma (Coken- State University, Starkville; MMNS - Mississip - dolpher & Bryce 1980); and Thayer County, Ne- pi Museum of Natural Science, Jackson; MPM braska (Rapp 1987), few definite United States - Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wis- records exist outside of Texas, where C . vittatus consin; MWSU - Midwestern State Univ ., Wich- can be anticipated statewide with perhaps the ita Falls, TX; NCSM - North Carolina State Mu- exception of several southeastern coastal coun- seum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh; NCSU - En- ties. Published Mexican records (Hoffmann 1932; tomology Department, North Carolina Stat e Diaz Najera 1975) are as follows : Cd. Juarez i n University, Raleigh; NMNH - National Museu m Chihuahua; Cd. Acuna, Allende, Cuatro Ciene- of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution , gas, Lamadrid, and Sacramento in Coahuila; Hi- Washington, DC ; OKSU - Emerson Entomolog- dalgo in Nuevo Leon ; and Barrotal, Cd. Aleman, ical Museum, Oklahoma State University, Still- 102 THE JOURNAL OF ARACHNOLOG Y Figures 4-5 .-Differences in telson morphology between Centruroides vittatus and C. hentzi . 4, Lateral view of telson of C. vittatus•, 5, Same for C. hentzi. water; OMNH - Oklahoma Museum of Natural doned campsite; in a sabal palmetto grove ; in History, University of Oklahoma, Norman ; the nest of a cactus rat; and in a molasses trap PMNH - Peabody Museum of Natural History , left overnight. Specimens were found in homes , Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut ; RNH motels, dormitories, and office buildings in Cole , - Private collection of R . N. Henson, Boone, St. Louis, and Taney counties, Missouri; Orleans North Carolina; SEM - Snow Entomological Mu- Parish, Louisiana; Alfalfa, Kay, Marshall, Mus- seum, University of Kansas, Lawrence ; SFASU kogee, Pawnee, Payne, and Stephens counties , - Biology Department, Stephen F . Austin Uni- Oklahoma; and DeBaca and Eddy counties, New versity, Nacogdoches, Texas ; TAMU - Texas A Mexico. An individual from San Miguel County , & M University, College Station ; TMM - Texas New Mexico, was encountered inside the Las Memorial Museum, University of Texas at Aus - Vegas hospital . tin; TY - private collection of T . Yamashita; UCO Distribution .— Centruroides vittatus has offi- - University of Colorado Museum, Boulder ; UGA cially been recorded from only 16 Texas counties - University of Georgia Museum of Natural His - — Andrews, Brewster, DeWitt, Edwards, Erath , tor, Athens; UMN - Entomology Department , Garza, Hall, Kinney, Lubbock, Mason, Parker, University of Minnesota, St . Paul; UMO - Enns Travis, Uvalde, Val Verde, Williamson, and Wise Entomological Museum, University of Missouri, (Reddell 1965, 1970 ; Rowland & Reddell 1976; Columbia; UTEP - Biology Department, Uni- Stockwell & Levi 1989 ; Formanowicz & Shaffer versity of Texas at El Paso; WDS - Private col- 1993). Although overlooking a number of sig- lection of W . D. Sissom, Canyon, Texas ; WFR nificant collections, Stockwell (1986) reported it - Private