Vol. 63, 2024

(update: 2024.12.25)

New Species of the Digger Scorpions, Odontobuthus Vachon, 1950 (Buthidae) from
Southern Iran

Hossein Barahoei^1,* and Mehran Shahi²

¹Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Agriculture Research Institute, Research Institute of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. *Correspondence: E-mail: h.barahoei@uoz.ac.ir (Barahoei)
²Department of Medical Entomology & Vector Control, School of Public Health, Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Hormozgan Health Institute, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran. E-mail: mshahi1346@gmail.com (Shahi)

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:91DB3026-562A-4DDF-9668-72DCB3DF927F
Received 21 May 2024 / Accepted 9 September 2024 / Published 25 December 2024
Communicated by Jen-Pan Huang

Odontobuthus Vachon, 1950, with nine described species, is a genus of digger scorpions in the Buthidae family, which can be distinguished by having large tooth-like processes on the ventrosubmedian carinae of the second and third metasomal segments. Morphological and molecular investigation of coastal specimens from the Hormozgan province in Iran led to the discovery of a new species named Odontobuthus persicus sp. nov. that is described here. It is closely related to O. chabaharensis morphologically. The new Odontobuthus species has two large and conical tooth-like processes on ventrosubmedian carinae of the second and third metasomal segments, while O. chabaharensis has three or four medium to large tooth-like processes. Based on phylogenetic analysis using partial COI sequences, the new species is placed as a sister taxon of O. brevidigitus. Genetic differences with the other species of Odontobuthus (mean = 0.107) confirmed the validity of this species.

Key words: Odontobuthus, COI, Genetic distance, Hormozgan, Taxonomy

Citation: Barahoei H, Shahi M. 2024. New species of the digger scorpions, Odontobuthus Vachon, 1950 (Buthidae) from Southern Iran. Zool Stud 63:48. doi:10.6620/ZS.2024.63-48.