THE LASTEST ADVANCES IN THE SYSTEMATICS OF Tityus GENUS IN VENEZUELA

The geographical patterns of distribution of the genus Teuthraustes Simon, 1878 in Ecuador and description of three new species (Scorpiones, Chactidae)

“…From the revision by Kraepelin (1911) until the monograph work of Mello-Leitão (1945) no new species of this genus were described. Subsequently, five new species were described from Venezuela, T. carmelinae Scorza, 1954, T. adrianae González-Sponga, 1975, T. akananensis González-Sponga, 1984, T. maturaca González-Sponga, 1991 and T. reticulatus González-Sponga, 1991, three from Brazil, T. lisei Lourenço, 1994, T. braziliensis Lourenço & Duhem, 2010 and T. newaribe Lourenço, Giupponi & Pedroso, 2011, one from Colombia, T. guerdouxi Lourenço, 1995 and one from Peru, T. castiglii Rossi, 2015 ( Lourenço 1994a , 1995b , Lourenço and Duhem 2010 , Lourenço et al 2011 , González-Sponga 1996 , Rossi 2015 ). Almost all the species of Teuthraustes , so far described, were collected in the Andean mountains in Ecuador and Colombia, and in the Amazonian highlands of Venezuela and Brazil.…”

The second confirmed record of the scorpion genus Chactas Gervais, 1844 (Scorpiones, Chactidae) from Ecuador with description of a new species from the Amazonian Province of Sucumbíos

“…The current morphological diagnosis of species within the genus Chactas can be considered as rather difficult, mainly because several species are extremely similar. This most certainly led subsequent authors to indicate the presence of Chactas vanbenedenii in many localities of Colombia and Venezuela ( Mello-Leitão 1945 ; González-Sponga 1978 , 1984 , 1996 ) Most of these records, however, have been based on misidentified specimens.…”

“…At present, the taxonomic classification of the genus Chactas is currently unresolved. This lack of clarification started a revision done by Kraepelin (1912) , but was largely amplified by Mello-Leitão (1945) and González-Sponga (1978) . Kraepelin (1912) originally suggested the existence of three natural groups of species within Chactas .…”

“…Mello-Leitão (1945) , in his monograph about South American scorpions, raised the ‘species groups’ to the rank of subgenera and the varieties to the rank of subspecies. González-Sponga (1978) proposed the creation of two new subgenera: Caribeochactas and Andinochactas . The creation of these new subgenera was primarily based on the relative number of trichobothria.…”

“…The pattern of distribution of the genus Chactas , seems to suggest a centre of dispersion in Colombia ( Lourenço 1997 ), and most of the known species have been described from this country. Exceptions, in continental South America, are known from Venezuela ( Gonzáles-Sponga 1996 ) and isolated cases have been reported from Brazil and Peru ( Lourenço et al 2005 ; Lourenço and Dastych 2001 ). Species are also known from Costa Rica, Panama and the Island of Trinidad ( Sissom 2000 ).…”