1997. The Journal of Arachnology 25 :106–108
RESEARCH NOTE
A NOTE ON EUSCORPIUS CARPATHICUS (SCORPIONES, CHACTIDAE) FROM THE CRIMEA
Euscorpius carpathicus (L. 1767) (Chacti- the Yaila range which runs latitudinally across dae), a scorpion species fairly common in the peninsula. southern Europe where it ranges from Spai n Following the technique developed fo r to Ukraine, has been extensively studied (e .g. , scorpions by Vachon (1963, 1975), I scored Birula 1917; Hadzi 1930 ; Caporiacco 1950 ; numbers of trichobothria on the pedipalp pa- Vachon, 1963, 1975, 1978; Curcio 1972; Kin- tella, which, in Euscorpius, vary both among zelbach 1975 ; Fet 1986 ; Sherabon, 1987). and within local populations . Ventral tricho- There are 24 described subspecies ; and, for bothria form a single row (Tv), whereas ex- most, the taxonomic status is unclear . Many ternal ones appear in six clusters: termina l of these forms are somewhat geographicall y (et), subterminal (est), median (em), suprabas - isolated; for example, nearly every Mediter- al (esb), and two basal groups (ebQ and eb). ranean island (e .g., Mallorca, Sardinia, Sicily, There is no sexual dimorphism. Numbers may Crete) has an endemic subspecies . vary between left and right pedipalp, but such The Crimea Peninsula (currently an admin- asymmetry is a subject of a separate study. istrative territory within Ukraine) houses the Trichobothrial numbers scored for the Cri- easternmost, disjunct population of E. car- mean population were : Tv = 7 (20 cases , pathicus . It is the only species of scorpio n 14.3%), Tv = 8 (119 cases, 85.0%) and Tv = found in the Crimea. This population was first 9 (1 case, 0 .7%%) (number of scored pedi- recorded from Alupka by Pallas (1795) . It was palps, 140) ; et 5 (14 cases, 10 .0%), et = 6 described by C.L. Koch (1838) as Scorpius (126 cases, 89 .4%) and et = 7 (1 case, 0.6%) tauricus and for many years was treated as a (n = 141) . Numbers of external trichobothria separate, endemic species . Birula (1917) listed in other five groups did not vary and were : it as Euscorpius tauricus (C .L. Koch) and est = 4, em = 4, esb 2, ebn = 4, eb = 4. gave a detailed description of its anatomy and Although some authors (urcio 1972 ; Kinzel- biology. Caporiacco (1950) synonymized it as bach 1975) attempted to discuss clinal varia- a subspecies of Euscorpius carpathicus (L.). tion in trichobothria within E. carpathicus, The original material from the Crimea has not few data are published that can be used for been analyzed since 1917 . comparison to the population above . Kinzel- The studied sample included 71 specimen s bach (1975) gave an qualitative overview of (176, 549) from the following localities of many samples from the Balkan Peninsula and the Crimea Peninsula (area between 33--35°E the Aegean Sea islands, using only the Tv in- and 44—45°N) : Alushta, Balaklava, Frunzen- dex. He recognized not one but two species: skoye, Gaspra, Inkerman, Kerch