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Flat-tailed, Bark Scorpions and Allies Parvorder: Buthida
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In 1850, Carl Ludwig Koch (1778-1857) published a book in which he arranged the then known scorpions into four families based on the number of eyes they had. So, there were the Six-eyed, Eight-eyed, Ten-eyed and Twelve-eyed Scorpions. Unfortunately this proved to be a very simplistic view and the taxonomic situation has become more convoluted and oftentimes a bit contentious as well; particularly so in the early 2000's when there seem to have been two distinct camps.
The higher divisions of the Order: Scorpiones does not appear entirely clear when checking various sources. iNaturalist follows the idea that there are two suborders, one of which contains just a single extinct species. The other, extant suborder, the Neoscorpionina, is made up of a single infraorder plus an unplaced family, the Akravidae *. |
The one infraorder, the Orthosterni, according to iNaturalist contains two parvorders with nine superfamilies and twenty-three families. Other sources may list four parvorders, six superfamilies and twenty-two families. The most current appears to be the arrangement on iNaturalist although it still contains a family (the Microcharmidae) that in 2022 has been described as being synonymous with the Family: Buthidae. (again!) The genera and species in Microcharmidae were subsequently placed back in Buthidae. Furthermore, a new family was erected by Santibanez-Lopez et al in 2023. The Genus: Anuroctonus was removed from the Family: Chactidae to create the new Family: Anuroctonidae, bringing the number of families back to twenty-three.
The iNaturalist arrangement is used here. |
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Estimates of species numbers in Australia vary but around 100 species or so appears to be a popular estimate. Nonetheless, the Atlas of Living Australia mentions less than 50 and the Australian Museum website states 29 species in amere 6 genera. Scorpion finds are often just chance encounters as most are nocturnal and tend to hide during the day. On top of that, there is the perception that all scorpions are dangerous which and as a consquence of that erroneaous belief most people will not actively seek them out. As it stands, Australian scorpions are quite harmless with most people stung only suffering minor reactions. In contrast to that: in Mexico, where scorpion numbers and diversity are high there are some 200,000 + envenomations per year resulting in more than 300 deaths. No doubt the majority of these victims would be children as they are more likely to go around bare-footed.
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* = The name Akravidae is derived from the Hebrew, 'Akrav' meaning scorpion. The family, first described in 2007, contains a single species the remains of which were found in the Ayalon Cave in Israel. No living specimens of the species have been found to date but, in 2015 more remains of the same scorpion were found in another cave nearby.
References and links:
> Levy, G., (2007). 'The first troglobite scorpion from Israel and a new chactoid family (Arachnida: Scorpiones).' Zoology in the Middle East. 40. 91-96. doi:10.1080/09397140.2007.10638209.
> Koch, C.L., (1837). 'Ubersicht des Arachnidensystems.' Verlag von J.L. Lotzbeck, Nurnburn, Germany.
> Lowe, G., and Kovařík, F., (2022) ‘Reanalysis of Teruelius and Grosphus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) with descriptions of two new species.’ Euscorpius, No. 356: 1-105.
> Rein, J.O., ( 2017). ‘ The Scorpion Files.’ Trondheim: Norwegian University of Science and Technology. [Accessed 25-04-2024].
> Santibáñez-López,C.E., Ojanguren-Affilastro, A.A., Graham, M.R. and Sharma, P.P., (2023). ‘Congruence between ultraconserved element-based matrices and phylotranscriptomic datasets inthe scorpion Tree of Life.’ Cladistics. 2023.
> Stockmann R. and Ythier E., (2010). ‘Scorpions of the World.’ N.A.P. Editions, Verrières-le-Buisson, Paris. ISBN978-2913688117.
https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/scorpions/
https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/455d1a0d-65cd-4521-92bc-053815eddc88#overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Ludwig_Koch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion
https://www.ntnu.no/ub/scorpion-files/akravidae.php
> Levy, G., (2007). 'The first troglobite scorpion from Israel and a new chactoid family (Arachnida: Scorpiones).' Zoology in the Middle East. 40. 91-96. doi:10.1080/09397140.2007.10638209.
> Koch, C.L., (1837). 'Ubersicht des Arachnidensystems.' Verlag von J.L. Lotzbeck, Nurnburn, Germany.
> Lowe, G., and Kovařík, F., (2022) ‘Reanalysis of Teruelius and Grosphus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) with descriptions of two new species.’ Euscorpius, No. 356: 1-105.
> Rein, J.O., ( 2017). ‘ The Scorpion Files.’ Trondheim: Norwegian University of Science and Technology. [Accessed 25-04-2024].
> Santibáñez-López,C.E., Ojanguren-Affilastro, A.A., Graham, M.R. and Sharma, P.P., (2023). ‘Congruence between ultraconserved element-based matrices and phylotranscriptomic datasets inthe scorpion Tree of Life.’ Cladistics. 2023.
> Stockmann R. and Ythier E., (2010). ‘Scorpions of the World.’ N.A.P. Editions, Verrières-le-Buisson, Paris. ISBN978-2913688117.
https://australian.museum/learn/animals/spiders/scorpions/
https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/455d1a0d-65cd-4521-92bc-053815eddc88#overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Ludwig_Koch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpion
https://www.ntnu.no/ub/scorpion-files/akravidae.php
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