ISSN 1211-8788 Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae biologicae (Brno) 90: 1–11, 2005

Notes on the diversity (Arachnida, Scorpiones) of the Yazd province, central Iran

VALERIO VIGNOLI 1 & PIERANGELO CRUCITTI 2

1 Università degli Studi di Siena, Dipartimento di Biologia Evolutiva, Via Aldo Moro 2-53100, Siena, Italy; e-mail: [email protected] 2 Società Romana di Scienze Naturali, Via Fratelli Maristi, 43-00137, Roma, Italy

VIGNOLI V. & CRUCITTI P. 2005: Notes on the scorpion diversity (Arachnida, Scorpiones) of the Yazd province, central Iran. Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae biologicae (Brno) 90: 1–11. – This work contains the results of the zoological expedition of the Società Romana di Scienze Naturali to Yazd, in central Iran (XXIII mission; April, 2004). The knowledge on scorpiofauna in this region is one of the poorest of Iran. Only two species, Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807) and Mesobuthus eupeus (C. L. Koch, 1839), were found during a recent three year long study. Six species and five genera, all belonging to the family , were collected: Mesobuthus eupeus (C. L. Koch, 1839), Mesobuthus vesiculatus (Pocock, 1899), Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807), Orthochirus zagrosensis Kovaøík, 2004, Compsobuthus kaftani Kovaøík, 2003, and Odontobuthus doriae (Thorell, 1876). The obtained collecting data was unexpected since we found a very low number of taxa in respect to the two well studied border provinces. Exactly 18 different species belonging to two families (Buthidae, Scorpionidae) are listed for the Esfahan province while the number of species given for the Fars province are 16, belonging to three different families [Buthidae, Liochelidae (sensu SOLEGLAD & FET 2003), Scorpionidae]. The faunistic diversity of six species in the territory around Yazd, with four new records, is higher than specified in existing literature and the unexpected relatively low number of species that were collected could be due to specific seasonal activity patterns. The of the collected species is briefly discussed and a checklist of the of the Yazd, Esfahan and Fars provinces is given. Key words. Scorpiones, biodiversity, taxonomy, Yazd province, Iran

Introduction Iran can be divided into four geographical regions: the Caspian, the Zagros, the Southern coastal plains, and finally, the Central Plateau (DARREHSHOURI & KASRAIAN 1998). The province of Yazd is located in the center of Iran, in the Central Plateau region (Fig. 1). On a geomorphological point of view, the province is situated in one of the main highlands, the Central Iranian mountainous area, with Mt. Karkas, 3895 m, and Mt. Shirkuh, 4055 m, as the highest peaks. Climatologically, the province of Yazd is an arid region due to the rain shadow effect of the Alborz and Zagros ranges, in addition to the distance from the Oman Sea, the Persian Gulf and from the Caspian lake. Only 5 % of the entire Iranian territory is under protection for conservation purposes; these lie in representative landscapes which are rich in faunal endemisms. In the Yazd province, the protected areas are: Kalmand and Kuh-e-Bāfq (ZEHZAD et al., 2002), and are principally instituted to study and protect endemic vertebrates. The knowledge of the scorpion biodiversity of the Yazd province is extremely poor. In a recent paper elaborated by Iranian researchers, only two species are listed for the entire province: Mesobuthus

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Fig. 1. Map of Iran showing the central position of Yazd province (dark grey) and city (A) and the province in detail with the cities where investigation was doing (B).

eupeus (C. L. Koch, 1839) and Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807) (KARIMI et al. 2001). The same species were listed for Yazd together with other two buthids (Androctonus amoreuxi (Audouin, 1826), Mesobuthus caucasicus (Nordmann, 1840)) in the study of the scorpion collection of the faculty of Science of the University of Teheran elaborated by HABIBI (1971). Thus, we aimed to reinvestigate the scorpion diversity and community structure of the Yazd province in central Iran to elaborate more data for this poorly studied region.

Methods We investigated ten different localities which were not casually chosen, and we tried to select different biotopes and altitudes. We investigated anthropic areas, including the suburbs of Taft, Yazd, Baghdādābād and Marvarre Village, besides different natural habitats: steppe (Taft, Ardakan and Bāfq), rocky areas (Taft, Ardakan, Bāfq), peeble pavement (Baghdādābād), semiconsalidated sands (Ardakan, Bāfq, Yazd) and dune sands (Ardakan, Bāfq, Abarqū). Each locality was investigated first during the day and later with UV lamps after sunset. The specimens were collected primarily during night with the use of portable fluorescent lights equipped with UV bulbs. Nevertheless, a few scorpions were collected by “rock rolling” (WILLIAMS 1968) in the sites which were investigated during day and then after sunset, using UV lamps. Locality data were recorded with a portable Garmin GPS receiver. Most of the specimens are preserved in 75 % ethanol and are deposited in the private collection of the first author (VVZC) in the Dipartimento di Biologia

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Evolutiva, University of Siena, Italy. Three specimens are in the collection of František Kovaøík (FKCP) while six specimens were deposited in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History, New York (AMNH). 1)

Material Only buthids were found (family Buthidae); six different described species belonging to five genera. In total, 162 specimens were collected. Several preserved specimens were used as comparative material, all belonging to VVZC: • Androctonus crassicauda Material. 1 juv., Wadi el Mujib, Jordan, 31°30N, 35°41E, 0 m, 31 March 1994, coll. S. Becvar, Det. F. Kovaøík. Mesobuthus vesiculatus (Pocock, 1899): 1 ♀, code 22, Main Abad, Kashan, Esfahan prov., Iran, 11 August 2000; coll. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti. • Mesobuthus eupeus Material. 1 ♀, Binálúd Mts., Abardeh (40 km west of Mashad), Khorasan prov., Iran, 36°20N, 59°11E, 30 March 1999, coll. J. Kaláb; 1 ♀, Sabalán Mts., Nir (40 km south-west of Ardabil), Ardabil prov., Iran, 38°02N, 47°59E, 14 April 1999, coll. J. Kaláb; 1 ♂, Reiné, Damavand Mts., Mazandaran prov, Iran, 08 August 2002, coll. P. Crucitti; 1 ♀–1 ♂, Ahar, Azerbajan prov., Iran, 31 August 2002, coll. P. Crucitti; 1 ♀, Choplu, Azerbajan prov., Iran, ca. 2200 m, 36°32N, 46°48E, 30 May 1999, coll. L. Saltini. • Compsobuthus kaftani Kovaøík, 2003 Material. 2 ♂ code 05–06, Main Abad, Kashan, Esfahan prov., Iran, 11.VIII.2000, coll. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti.

Results

Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807)

Material examined. 1 ♀, No. 01, Yazd, city, 13 April 2004; 1 subad. ♂, No. 02, 12 km north-east of Bāfq, ca. 1209 m, 31°41.948’N, 55°32.069’E, 10 April 2004; 1 subad. ♂, No. 03, west of Baghdādābād, ca. 1502 m, 31°35.210’N, 54°24.585’E, 09 April 2004, coll. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti. Comments. Androctonus crassicauda is a large dark species whose subspecific division is still not clear (FET & LOWE 2000). Easy to distinguish from the other two congeneric taxa present in Iran; A. amoureuxi (Audouin, 1826) has metasomal segments longer than wide and A. finitimus (Pocock, 1897) is a bright colored species similar to A. australis (Linnaeus, 1758) (TIKADER & BASTAWADE 1983; FET & LOWE 2000). A. crassicauda is a widespread species (FET & LOWE 2000) with a large distribution in Iran, from south to north. The presence of this taxon in the Yazd province is given in bibliography (HABIBI 1971; KARIMI et al. 2001). Totally, three specimens were found; two were donated by people who collected them nearby inhabited houses. One subadult male was found active on a rock during a night exploration on a little rocky-sandy hill, northeast of Bāfq. We

1) Other abbreviations: subad. = subadult, juv. = juvenile

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Fig. 2. a) Orthochirus zagrosensis Kovařík, 2004, (scale: 3 mm); b) Compsobuthus kaftani Kovařík, 2003, (scale: 6 mm); c) Mesobuthus vesiculatus (Pocock, 1899), (scale: 7 mm); d) Odontobuthus doriae (Thorell, 1876), (scale: 9 mm).

know about the common tendence to colonization of human made environments of this scorpion (CRUCITTI 2003) and therefore we surveyed both sites with inhabited houses, in suburbs of Baghdādābād and Taft, and neglected houses, in a little village 5 km south- east of Taft; nevertheless we did not find this species. Even in these field results, A. crassicauda seems to be eurytopic and relatively cryptic.

Orthochirus zagrosensis Kovařík, 2004 (Fig. 2a) Material examined. 1 ♀ (paratype, FKCP), No. 04, 2 ♂, No. 04, 05, west of Baghdādābād, ca. 1502 m, 31°35.210’N, 54°24.585’E, 09 April 2004; 1 subad. (paratype, FKCP), No. 06, 1 km east of Taft, ca. 1542 m; 31°44.452’N; 54°13.517’E; 07 April 2004; 3 juv., No. 07, 08, 09, 10 km east of Ardakan, ca. 1235 m, 32°18.626’N, 54°15.133’E, 11 April 2004; 1 ♀ (AMNH), No. 15, 5 km south-east of Taft, ca. 1556 m, 31°44.407’N, 54°15.308’E, 13 April 2004; 1 ♀ (paratype, FKCP), No. 14, 23 km west of Ardakan, Marvarre Village, ca. 1450 m, 32°09.299’N, 53°49.542’E; 12 April 2004; coll. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti.

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Comments. In the Catalog of the Scorpions of the World (FET & LOWE 2000), the genus Orthochirus Karsh, 1891 was represented in Iran only by O. scrobiculosus (Grube, 1873) with three subspecies: O. scrobiculosus scrobiculosus (Grube, 1873), O. s. melanurus (Kessler, 1874) and O. s. persa (Birula, 1900). A recent complete revision, which reported six species of the Asian Orthochirus, gave evidence of a higher complexity of this genus in Iran (KOVAØÍK 2004: 26). Orthochirus iranus, O. sobotniki, O. varius and O. zagrosensis Kovaøík, 2004 are new described species while O. scrobiculosus (Grube, 1873) is confirmed and O. fuscipes (Pocock, 1900), which was known only for Pakistan (FET & LOWE 2000), is added to the Iranian fauna (KOVAØÍK 2004). When we began to study the Orthochirus specimens collected during the expedition, the description of this new taxonomical entity was still in progress. Three specimens collected were sent and used for the description, and included into the type series as paratypes (KOVAØÍK 2004: 22). O. zagrosensis is most similar to O. iranus, and principally distinguishable by the smooth granulation of metasomal segments. This species is relatively widespread and is known from four different provinces; the distribution comprises central Iran (Esfahan and Yazd prov.) and two south western regions (Boyerahmad-va-Kuhgiluyeh (Kohkiluie) and Fars prov.) (KOVAØÍK 2004).

Compsobuthus kaftani Kovaøík, 2003 (Fig. 2b)

Material examined. 3 ♂, No. 132, 133, 149, 1 ♀, No. 148, 23 km west of Ardakan, Marvarre Village, ca. 1450 m, 32°09.299’N, 53°49.542’E, 12 April 2004; 3 ♀, No. 141, 142, 146 (AMNH), 1 km east of Taft, ca. 1542 m, 31°44.452’N, 54°13.517’E, 07 April 2004; 2 ♀, No. 150, 151, 2 juv. ♀, No. 159, 160, 1 juv. ♂, No. 161, 20 km south of Yazd, ca. 1252 m, 31°48.278’N, 54°30.219’E, 14 April 2004; 1 ♀, No. 163, 2 ♂, No. 143, 162, west of Baghdādābād, ca. 1502 m, 31°35.210’N, 54°24.585’E, 09 April 2004; 2 ♂, No. 137, 138, 1 juv., No. 139, 5 km south-east of Taft, ca. 1556 m, 31°44.407’N, 54°15.308’E, 13 April 2004; 1 ♂, No. 145, 12 km north-east of Bāfq, ca. 1258 m, 31°41.948’N, 55°32.069’E, 10 April 2004; coll. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti. Comments. There are eight total species of Compsobuthus known from Iranian territory (KOVAØÍK 2003, VIGNOLI 2005). Three belonging to the “acutecarinatus“ group [C. matthiesseni (Birula, 1905); C. garyi Lourenço & Vachon, 2001; C. sobotniki Kovaøík, 2003], while C. kaftani, together with four other taxa [C. rugosolus (Pocock, 1900); C. kafkai, C. plutenkoi Kovaøík, 2003, and C. petriolii (VIGNOLI 2005)], belong to the “werneri“ group. C. kaftani was described from the Esfahan province, near Kashan, and this new collecting data enlarge the distribution area ca. 400 km to south east.

Mesobuthus eupeus (C. L. Koch, 1839)

Material examined. 11 ♀, No. 19, 20, 61, 62, 73, 76, 100–103,167 (AMNH), 14 subad. ♀, No. 63, 67–69, 81, 82, 99, 104–107, 109, 120, 122, 20 juv. ♀, No. 64–66, 70, 71, 85, 90, 93–98, 111, 112, 117, 119, 127, 128, 130, 1 ♂, No. 131, 10 subad. ♂, No. 77–80, 83, 84, 108, 110, 121, 123, 14 juv. ♂, No. 87–89, 91, 92, 113–116, 118, 124–126, 129, 10 km north-east of Bāfq, ca. 1209 m, 31°42.689’N, 55°30.277’E, 10, 14 April 2004; 2 ♀, No. 72, 74, 12 km north-east of Bāfq, ca. 1258 m, 31°41.948’N, 55°32.069’E, 10 April 2004; 2 ♂, No. 58, 59, 5 km from Taft, on the road to Nasr Abad, near “eagle rock”, ca. 1842 m, 31°44.323’N, 54°13.379’E, 08 April 2004; 1 ♂ (AMNH), No. 166, 1 km east of Taft, ca. 1542 m, 31°44.452’N, 54°13.517’E, 07 April 2004; 1 ♂, No. 60, 5 km south-east of Taft, ca. 1556 m, 31°44.407’N, 54°15.308’E, 13 April 2004; coll. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti.

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Comments. This species of Buthidae has an enormous geographic range in the arid zones of Asia (KOVAØÍK 1997, GROMOV 2001), and is considered one of the most common species in Iran (FARZANPAY & PRETZMANN 1974, TIRGARI & ZARGAN 2002, CRUCITTI & VIGNOLI 2003). Several subspecies are known, at least eight only from Iran (FET & LOWE 2000). We did not consider the subspecific taxonomy which is confounding because it is based on morphological characters which present high polymorphism (see BIRULA 1900: 367). Thus, a modern revision of this widespread species “complex” will be important to give taxonomical clearness.

Mesobuthus vesiculatus (Pocock, 1899) (Fig. 2c)

Material examined. 10 ♀, No. 134, 147, 152–158, 165 (AMNH), 23 km west of Ardakan, Marvarre Village, 1450 m, 32°09.299’N, 53°49.542’E, 12 April 2004; 1 ♀, No. 75, 1 subad. ♀, No. 140, west of Baghdādābād, ca. 1502 m, 31°35.210’N, 54°24.585’E, 09 April 2004; 1 ♀, No. 10, 1 km east of Taft, 1542 m, 31°44.452’N, 54°13.517’E, 07 April 2004; 2 ♀, No. 11, 12, 20 km south of Yazd, ca. 1252 m, 31°48.278’N, 54°30.219’E, 14 April 2004; 2 ♀, No. 135, 136, 5 km south-east of Taft, ca. 1556 m, 31°44.407’N, 54°15.308’E, 13 April 2004; coll. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti.

Comments. This species was firstly described by POCOCK (1899) as Buthus vesiculatus. Despite very similar to M. caucasicus (Nordmann, 1840), the author gave the evidence of the large and globular telson with a short aculeus (POCOCK 1899: 406, plate 26, Fig. 3). Later, WERNER (1929) described another Buthus from Iran: Buthus gabrielis. Werner did not give importance to the swollen telson and distinguished the new species from similar congeneric taxa, especially, on the carination and length of metasoma segments and pedipalp chela. The briefly description was based only on one male; moreover no drawings were elaborated and only one picture, showing the dorsal habitus of the holotype, was included (WERNER 1929: 244, Fig. 3). After the examination and comparison of more specimens identified as B. vesiculatus and B. gabrielis, the two species were putted in synonymy because identical (FET & LOWE 2000). This taxon is characterized by a very swollen telson and short aculeus in adults. We noted that the specimens show partially fused posterior central prosomal carinae. A completely fused posterior central prosomal carinae is a diagnostical character of the genus Compsobuthus Vachon, 1949; therefore we think that a complete comparative revision with modern approaches could be interesting to have a clearer taxonomical vision of the relations of these similar genera. The distribution knowledge is scattered and known for localities which comprise the western part of Iran, from north to south: Teheran, Isfahan (Esfahan) and Kashan (FET & LOWE 2000: 181, VIGNOLI et al. 2003). We noted a high ecological opportunism and do not exclude a wider distribution in Iran.

Odontobuthus doriae (Thorell, 1876) (Fig. 2d)

Material examined. 12 ♀, No. 23, 30–32, 38–40, 42, 45, 53, 55, 56, 7 subad. ♀, No. 22, 35, 36, 41, 43, 46, 47, 2 ♂, No. 33, 34, 2 subad. ♂, No. 21, 44, 4 juv. ♀, No. 48, 50–52, 2 juv. ♂, No. 49, 86, 10 km north-east of Bāfq, ca. 1209 m, 31°42.689’N, 55°30.277’E, 10, 14 April 2004; 1 ♂, No. 24, 1 subad. ♀, No. 25, 1 subad. ♂, No. 54, 2 juv. ♀, No. 26, 29, 2 juv. ♂, No. 27, 28, 2 ♀, No. 37, 57 (AMNH), 10 km east of Ardakan, ca. 1235 m, 32°18.626’N, 54°15.133’E, 11 April 2004; coll. V. Vignoli & P. Crucitti.

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Comments. Three species of Odontobuthus Vachon, 1950 are hitherto described on a wide area which comprise the Arabian Peninsula (Oman) and central Asia (Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India) (FET & LOWE 2000; LOURENÇO & PÉZIER 2002). While O. odonturus (Pocock, 1897) has the most eastern distribution, from south Pakistan to India (Rajastan) (TIKADER & BASTAWADE 1983, FET & LOWE 2000), O. bidentatus Lourenço, 2002, has a more western distribution in respect to the other two species; O. doriae (Thorell, 1876) seems to be endemic to Iran, and is the most widespread taxon with a distribution area which comprises the northern regions and the central-south regions of Iran (LOURENÇO & PÉZIER 2002). This is the first record of O. doriae for the Yazd region. We collected this species only in two localities which were more than 200 km apart. It seems that this species is strongly associated with sandy biotopes, and even when the populations were characterized by a high presence of specimens, these were extremely localized. This could explain the unclear distribution of the entire genus (LOURENÇO & PÉZIER 2002), and that we did not find this scorpion in the Esfahan province as it is reported by several authors (VIGNOLI et al. 2003: Tab. 1).

Conclusions On nine of ten localities, investigated during night, scorpions were collected. Unfortunately, we did not collect scorpions during the visit to Abarqū which was selected for its western position and very low altitude with respect to all the other investigated localities. It was the coldest day of our expedition and the temperature range was: 15 °C at 5 PM and 12.8 °C at 9 PM. The presence of scorpions in the area was evident by cuticle fragments inside rodent holes, nevertheless we did not collect any specimens. The province of Yazd is within the latitude range of maximum scorpion diversity given by POLIS (1990). As a matter of fact, the scorpion diversity of two of the four border regions, Esfahan and Fars province (Fig. 1), is high and communities composed at least of 6 species have been observed (VIGNOLI et al. 2003). The Esfahan province on the north and the Fars province on the south, were previously investigated by different arachnologists and some faunistic studies were published. Exactly 18 different species belonging to two families (Buthidae, Scorpionidae) are listed for the Esfahan province, while the number of species given for the Fars province are 16, belonging to three different families (Buthidae, Liochelidae (sensu SOLEGLAD & FET 2003), Scorpionidae) (HABIBI 1971; AKBARI et al. 1997; KOVAØÍK 1997, 2003, 2004; DEGHANI et al. 1998; LOURENÇO & PÉZIER 2002; VIGNOLI et al. 2003; VIGNOLI 2005) (see Appendix). Thus, the results of the present study are unexpected, since we found a relatively low total number of species (6) and a relatively poor community diversity (maximum 4 taxa were found in three localities). If we compare our results, we can see that we found less than 50% of species known for the border provinces. On the basis of our collecting data, we can see that Mesobuthus eupeus is the most abundant species (46.9%), while the most common is Compsobuthus kaftani which was collected in six of ten investigated localities. The rarest is Orthochirus zagrosensis, while Odontobuthus doriae, which was collected only in two of the ten investigated localities,

Acta Mus. Moraviae, Sci. Biol. (Brno), 90, 2005 7 V. V IGNOLI & P. CRUCITTI is the most specialized for habitat selection. Despite the fact we investigated different habitats, we found few ecological morphotypes: one adapted psammophilous (O. doriae), and five generalist scorpion species (Androctonus crassicauda, C. kaftani, M. eupeus, M. vesiculatus), even if O. zagrosensis was predominating in rocky areas. The most characteristic faunal elements of our study are M. vesiculatus and O. zagrosensis whose distribution knowledge is very poor. We can conclude that the faunistic diversity of six species in the territory around Yazd is higher than specified in existing literature, nevertheless lower than we suspected.

Table 1. Checklist of the species of Yazd province. Taxa found during this study (+); taxa not found (-) but listed in bibliography for Yazd or localities of the homonymous province.

2) The specimens identified as A. amoreuxi by HABIBI (1971) are considerate as mistaken identity in the Catalogue of the scorpions from Iran (FARZANPAY 1988: 35).

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Further field investigation, will be needed, especially to see if the presence of a seasonal phenology, known for scorpions in desert communities (FET 1980, WARBURG & POLIS 1990), affected our results or if the “missing” species, which occur in the north and south of the investigated localities, are characterized by a disjunct distribution. Our field results, with four new records, give a more complete list of scorpion species present in the Yazd province, but we do not exclude the presence of more taxa.

Acknowledgements We are grateful to W. Lourenço and F. Kovaøík for providing useful bibliography and taxonomical comments. We thank S. A. Moravey (Department of Entomology, Tarbiat Modarres University, Teheran, Iran) and F. Mozaffarian (Insect Taxonomy Department, Plant Pests and Diseases Research Institute in Teheran) for sending and translating interesting Iranian papers. We also thank P. Michalik (Zoologisches Institut und Museum Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität, Greifswald, Germany) for commenting on a draft of the manuscript. Finally, special thanks to L. Esposito (Department of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York), a friend and colleague who checked and revised the language of the manuscript.

References

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A PPENDIX

The taxa from the Esfahan and Fars provinces are listed according to bibliography. Most of the species belonging to the family Buthidae, while one species belong to the Liochelidae (§) and one to the Scorpionidae (#) family.

10 Acta Mus. Moraviae, Sci. Biol. (Brno), 90, 2005 Scorpiones of the Yazd province, central Iran APPENDIX

3) Probably a case of mistaken identity, see comments in VIGNOLI et al. (2003: 4). 4) Given as C. acutecarinatus (Simon, 1882) in FARZANPAY & PRETZMAN (1974), see VIGNOLI (2005), for taxonomical comments.

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