A new Lesser Antillean scorpion of the genus Didymocentrus Kraepelin, 1905 (Scorpiones: Diplocentridae) Rolando Teruel & Karl Questel July 2020 — No. 313 Euscorpius Occasional Publications in Scorpiology EDITOR: Victor Fet, Marshall University, ‘[email protected]’ ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Michael E. Soleglad, ‘[email protected]’ TECHNICAL EDITOR: František Kovařík, ‘[email protected]’ Euscorpius is the first research publication completely devoted to scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Euscorpius takes advantage of the rapidly evolving medium of quick online publication, at the same time maintaining high research standards for the burgeoning field of scorpion science (scorpiology).Euscorpius is an expedient and viable medium for the publication of serious papers in scorpiology, including (but not limited to): systematics, evolution, ecology, biogeography, and general biology of scorpions. 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For further details on the new ICZN amendment, see http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/article/3944/. Publication date: 10 July 2020 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6134096F-543A-4B06-9E2E-9F8AE82575CC Euscorpius - Occasional Publications in Scorpiology. 2020, No. 313 A new Lesser Antillean scorpion of the genus Didymocentrus Kraepelin, 1905 (Scorpiones: Diplocentridae) Rolando Teruel 1, 2 & Karl Questel 3 1 Grupo de Sistemática y Ecología de Artrópodos Caribeños, Calle 200 # 3759, e/ 37 y 45, Reparto Versalles, La Lisa, La Habana 13500, CUBA. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática (Subdirección de Colecciones Zoológicas), Carretera de Varona # 11835, e Oriente y Lindero, Reparto Calabazar, Boyeros, La Habana 11900, CUBA. 3 Association ALSOPHIS: http://biodiversiteantilles.blogspot.com/ E-mail: [email protected] http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6134096F-543A-4B06-9E2E-9F8AE82575CC Summary A new species of the diplocentrid scorpion of the genus Didymocentrus Kraepelin, 1905 is herein described from the Lesser Antillean island of Martinique. It long remained misidentified as Didymocentrus lesueurii (Gervais, 1844), the only species of this genus inhabiting the adjacent island of Saint Lucia. The direct comparison of adults of both sexes from these two islands revealed solid morphological characters, which warrant their recognition as two different taxa. Each one is endemic from a single major island, where it is widespread even in its satellite islets. This addition raises the known composition of the genus to 12 species, 10 of them exclusively Antillean. Introduction Teruel & Roncallo, 2007; Teruel & Rodríguez, 2008; Teruel & Chazal, 2010; Teruel & Kovařík, 2012; Kovařík & Teruel, In the classic revision of the Circum-Caribbean members of 2014; Teruel et al., 2015), the redescriptions of seven poorly Diplocentridae Karsch, 1880, published by Francke (1978), known species (Teruel, 2000a,b; Teruel & Díaz, 2004; Teruel a single species of this family was recorded from the island & Armas, 2006; Teruel & Cala, 2006; Teruel & Rodríguez, of Martinique as Didymocentrus lesueurii (Gervais, 1844). 2008), the revalidation of five species that were incorrectly It was until then an enigmatic scorpion, which had been regarded earlier as junior synonyms (Teruel, 2000b; Teruel & originally described from “Amérique Septentrionale” and Armas, 2006; Teruel & Rodríguez, 2008; Teruel & Rodríguez- thereafter widely recorded throughout tropical America Cabrera, 2017) and the synonymizations of other three species under different generic assignments; see complete reference (Teruel, 2009). Most of these papers also include updates of lists in Francke (1978: 6) and Sissom & Fet (2000: the geographical distribution and important data on the natural 334–335). Almost all of these records actually implied history of every species. misidentifications as demonstrated by Francke (1978), who As a part of these continued studies, representative samples examined Gervais’s type and restricted its originally vague of Didymocentrus from Martinique and Saint Lucia were type locality (“North America”) to the Lesser Antillean island obtained and carefully compared. This revealed consistent of Saint Lucia, and regarded as conspecific the specimens differences between both populations, which exceed the he studied from Martinique. From there on, most of the intrapopulational variation observed for each one and affect literature records of D. lesueurii (e.g., Armas, 1982, 1988; those characters currently used as species-level diagnostic in Soleglad & Fet, 2003a, 2006; Soleglad et al., 2005; Kamenz the genus, thus, we concluded that the Martinique population & Prendini, 2008; Santibáñez-López, 2012; Santibáñez- represents a separate species. Because there is no previous López et al., 2014; Dupré, 2016) were actually based upon name introduced in the taxonomic literature for it, we formally specimens from Martinique, but their specific identity was describe it here. never questioned. For the last 20 years, the present senior author has been Methods, Material & Abbreviations working intensively on the taxonomy of Diplocentridae. A total of 29 papers have been published so far, which cover To avoid unnecessary duplication of data already available in all genera of this family and as long as taxonomy alone is recent catalogues and compilations (e.g., Armas, 1988; Sissom concerned, contributed the descriptions of a new genus (Teruel & Fet, 2000), for each taxon only the most relevant taxonomic & Kovařík, 2012) and 12 new species (Teruel, 2003, 2006, references were cited, such as the original description and 2008, 2013; Teruel & Díaz, 2004; Teruel & Armas, 2006; subsequent nomenclatural changes. 2 Euscorpius - 2020, No. 313 Figures 1–3. Didymocentrus martinicae sp. n., male paratype (1), male holotype (2) and female paratype (3), habitus: a) dorsal; b) ventral. See size variation between both males. Scale bar: 10 mm. Teruel & Questel: Didymocentrus martinicae sp. n. 3 Specimens were studied under an AmScope SM-1T- (misidentification: record from Martinique); Soleglad et PL LED trinocular microscope, equipped with an ocular al., 2005: 5, 27; tab. 5 (misidentification: specimen from line-scale calibrated to 20x for measuring. Nomenclature Martinique); Kamenz & Prendini, 2008: 12, 19, 30, 42; and measurements follow Stahnke (1971) except for pl. 141a; fig. 10; tab. 2 (misidentification: specimens trichobothriotaxy (Vachon, 1974), metasomal carinae from Martinique); Santibáñez López, 2012: 134–136, (Francke, 1977), pedipalp chela carinae (Acosta et al., 2008, 139, 160–161, 164, 186, 202, 222; figs. 4c, 5c, 6a, sensu Armas et al., 2011), and sternum (Soleglad & Fet, 12–13; tab. 2 (misidentification: specimens and records 2003a). Unless otherwise noted, all characters mentioned refer from Martinique); Santibáñez-López et al., 2014: 259– to adults of both sexes and total length includes telson. Pectinal 260, 273; tabs. 1–2 (misidentification: specimens from tooth counts were given as fractions for left/right pectines. Martinique); Dupré, 2016: 17, 59 (misidentification: Leg segments nomenclature and armature corresponds to records from Martinique and Ramiers). Santibáñez-López et al. (2013), sensu Teruel (2013). Didymocentrus leseurii [incorrect subsequent spelling]: All photographs were taken with a Nikon Coolpix B500 Soleglad & Fet, 2003a: 6 (misidentification: specimen digital camera. The images were processed with Adobe from Martinique); Soleglad et al., 2005: 5, 27, tab. 5 Photoshop CS5, only for contrast and brightness optimization, (misidentification: specimen from Martinique); Fet et removal of artifacts and/or unnecessary details from al., 2006: 3,