Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Biological Sciences Faculty Research Biological Sciences 6-2015 A new species of Euscorpius (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae) from southern Bulgaria Gioele Tropea Victor Fet Marshall University, [email protected] Aristeidis Parmakelis Panayiota Kotsakiozi Iasmi Stathi Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/bio_sciences_faculty Part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons Recommended Citation Tropea, G., Fet, V., Parmakelis, A., Kotsakiozi, P. & I. Stathi. 2015. A new species of Euscorpius (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae) from southern Bulgaria. Arachnologische Mitteilungen, 49: 10-20. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Biological Sciences at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Biological Sciences Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 49: 10-20 Karlsruhe, Juni 2015 A new species of Euscorpius (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae) from southern Bulgaria Gioele Tropea, Victor Fet, Aristeidis Parmakelis, Panayiota Kotsakiozi & Iasmi Stathi doi: 10.5431/aramit4902 Abstract. A new scorpion species, Euscorpius drenskii sp. nov., is described from the Western Rhodope Mts. in sou- thern Bulgaria. It is characterized by an oligotrichous trichobothrial pattern, which shows a conspicuous loss of one trichobothrium in the external median patellar series (em = 3), also observed in E. carpathicus (Linnaeus, 1767) and the subgenus Alpiscorpius Gantenbein, Fet, Largiadèr & Scholl, 1999. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rDNA marker sequences does not show any close relationship between these three groups, suggesting that the observed loss of a trichobothrium is an independent event. Keywords: Scorpions, systematics, West Rhodope, 16S rDNA The genus Euscorpius Thorell, 1876, widespread in Here, we describe a new species from Rhodope southern Europe and Anatolia, is one of the most Mts. in southern Bulgaria, E. drenskii sp. nov., based studied scorpion taxa. Despite this, the taxonomy on morphological and molecular evidence analyses. of this genus is very complicated and still far from being resolved. This is also true for Bulgaria, where Methods and material this genus has been insufficiently studied in the past. The trichobothrial notation follows Vachon (1974). Taxonomic studies of Euscorpius are further hindered Morphological measurements are given in millime- by the existence of cryptic species complexes, difficult ters (mm) following Tropea et al. (2014b). Morpho- to resolve even with phylogenetic analyses (Parmake- logical nomenclature follows Stahnke (1970), Hjel- lis et al. 2013, Tropea et al. 2014a). Several relatively le (1990) and Sissom (1990); the chela carinae and recent studies have provided information on diffe- denticle configuration follows Soleglad & Sissom rent Euscorpius populations from Bulgaria, assuming (2001); and sternum terminology follows Soleglad & the possibility of new species (Valle 1975, Fet 2000, Fet (2003). The map was generated by Earth Explo- Teruel et al. 2004, Fet & Soleglad 2007). However, rer 6.1, with positional and altitude data compiled they did not focus on resolving the systematic positi- through Google Maps. on of these forms, but rather grouped different popu- All DNA work was performed in the University lations based on a few morphological characteristics, of Athens by PK and AP; for details on DNA ext- and placed them in the following species complexes: raction, amplification and sequencing, see Parmakelis “E. carpathicus complex”, “E. hadzii complex” and “E. et al. (2013). Phylogenetic analysis was conducted by mingrelicus complex”. Most recently, Fet et al. (2014) GT as specified below. Nomenclature for reporting described two new species based on molecular and DNA sequences from non-type (“geneseq-3”) speci- morphological evidence from northern and south- mens follows Chakrabarty et al. (2013). western Bulgaria: E. deltshevi and E solegladi. Abbreviations V: trichobothrial series on pedipalp chela manus Gioele TROPEA, Via Gavinana 2, 00192 Rome, Italy; ventral surface (not including ); Pv: trichobothria E-mail: [email protected] Et1 Victor FET, Department of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, on the ventral aspect of pedipalp patella; Pe: tricho- Huntington, West Virginia 25755-2510, USA; E-mail: [email protected] bothria on the external surface of pedipalp patella; Aristeidis PARMAKELIS, Department of Ecology and Taxonomy, Faculty of Biology, University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli Zografou, et: external terminal; est: external subterminal; em: GR-15784 Athens, Greece; E-mail: [email protected] external median; esb: external suprabasal; eb : exter- Panayiota KOTSAKIOZI, Department of Ecology and Taxonomy and a Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biology, nal basal-a; eb: external basal; db: dorsal basal tri- University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli Zografou, GR-15784 Athens, chobothrium on fixed finger;Dp : pectinal teeth num- Greece; E-mail: [email protected] Iasmi STATHI, Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete, ber; L: length; H: height; Lchel: chela length; Wchel: GR-71409 Heraklion, Crete, Greece; E-mail: [email protected] chela width (=Wchel-A of Tropea et al. 2014a); Lcar: submitted 19.11.2014, accepted 10.4.2015, online 29.5.2015 carapace length; Wcar: carapace width; Lfem: femur A new Euscorpius from Bulgaria 11 length; Lpat: patella length; Lmet: sum of the length (Felsenstein 1985). The tree is drawn to scale, with of all metasomal segments; Wmet: sum of the width branch lengths in the same units as the genetic dis- of all metasomal segments; met.seg: metasomal seg- tances. The genetic distances (Tab. 2) were computed ment; CarA/CarP %: average ratio of distances from using the Kimura 2-parameter method of Kimura center of median eyes to anterior and posterior mar- (1980) and are expressed as the number of base sub- gins of the carapace; DPS: dorsal patellar spur; DD: stitutions per site. distal denticle; MD: median denticles; OD: outer denticles; ID: inner denticles; IAD: inner accessory History of study denticles; imm.: immature specimen (in any stage of The remote West Rhodope Mts. escaped early scor- development). pion scholars, although the very first specimen de- Depositories: GTC, personal collection of Gio- posited in the National Museum of Natural History, ele Tropea, Rome, Italy; MSNB, Museo Civico di Sofia, Bulgaria (NMNHS) was collected as early as Scienze Naturali “E. Caffi”, Bergamo, Italy; MZUR, 1901 by Prince Ferdinand, the founder of this im- Museo di Zoologia dell’Università di Roma “Sapi- portant Museum in 1889. Ferdinand I (1861–1948) enza”, Rome, Italy; NMNHS, National Museum of of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha royalty, the Knyaz (Prince Natural History, Sofia, Bulgaria; VFPC: personal Regnant) of the independent Bulgaria since 1887, collection of Victor Fet, Huntington, West Virginia, and its Tsar (King) since 1908, was an amateur lepi- USA; ZMMSU, Zoological Museum of Moscow dopterist and botanist, who promoted natural science State University, Moscow, Russia. in the Balkans. Even though additional specimens from the West Material studied: A detailed list of material with la- Rhodopes were collected by the most prominent bel data is provided below. Bulgarian arachnologist Pencho Drenski in 1924– 1925, they have not been studied or published. The Phylogenetic analysis Bulgarian populations were overlooked in the most A new 16S rDNA sequence for Euscorpius drenskii comprehensive revision of Euscorpius (Di Caporiac- (West Rhodope Mts., Smolyan Province, Trigrad, co 1950). The first data on Euscorpius from the West 41.60°N, 24.38°E, 1474 m, 31 May 1999, leg. V. Fet Rhodope was published by Valle (1975) who studied & V. Sakalian; geneseq-3 16S) was deposited in Gen- specimens from Smolyan Province (which current- Bank under a submission number KP12342. Twelve ly cannot be found in the important Valle collection published mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences have at Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali “Enrico Caf- been retrieved from GenBank and used for compa- fi”, Bergamo). Trichobothrial values given by Valle rison: E. tergestinus (C.L. Koch, 1837): AJ298066; (1975) as B2 = 6 and B3 = 8 correspond to standard E. avcii Tropea, 2012: KF030937; E. carpathicus values (Vachon 1974) as eb = 4/4 and eba = 4/4; see (Linnaeus, 1767): AY172338; E. concinnus (C.L. Fet et al. (2003: 374) for a detailed scheme compa- Koch, 1837): DQ989935; E. flavicaudis (De Geer, ring Valle’s and Vachon’s systems of trichobothrial 1778): DQ989957; E. germanus (C.L. Koch, 1837): notation. Valle, however, did not report em number AJ249553; E. italicus (Herbst, 1800): DQ989956; (D4 series) for his Smolyan specimens. E. stahlavskyi Tropea , 2014: KC215605; Euscorpius Independently, 16 specimens from the West sp.: KC215579; KC215580; KC215651; KC215644 Rhodope Mts. (now in ZMMSU) were donated to (Gantenbein et al. 2001, Huber et al. 2001, Fet et al. V.F. in 1984 by Dr. Christo Deltshev. This series was 2002, Salomone et al. 2007, Parmakelis et al. 2013). collected by the late Dimitar Raichev, an amateur The 13 sequences were aligned by eye. Phylogene- naturalist of Chepelare, Smolyan Province, in 1981– tic analyses were conducted in MEGA5 (Tamura et 1983. This enigmatic population was studied by V.F. al. 2011). All positions containing gaps and missing and triggered his first interest in Bulgarian scorpions. data