23 May, 2014

A new species of Chaerilus from Vietnam


Wilson Lourenco and Dinh-Sac Pham have recently published a new species of Chaerilus discovered in the Pa Thom Caves in the Dien Bien District in northern Vietnam.

Chaerilus pathom Lourenco & Pham, 2014 (Chaerilidae)

The new species was found in caves, but the paper doesn't report about any cave adaptions or if this is a troglophile species.

Recently, Frantisek Kovarik published a revision of Chaerilidae in his book project Illustrated Catalog of Scorpions, Part II. Lourenco & Pham strongly criticize and reject Kovarik's decisions in this revision, and state that species that are synonymized or declared Nomen dubium should be valid until more detailed studies are made.I will post a special blog message later with the consequences for the genus in regard to Kovarik's decisions (which is currently reflected in The scorpion Files species list).

Abstract:
A new species of the genus Chaerilus Simon, 1877 is described from a cave in Dien Bien District, West of Dien Bien Phu city in northern Vietnam. The new species is morphologically similar to other Chaerilus species distributed only in the south of Vietnam and Cambodia and suggests a case of a vicariant species between northern and southern populations in the Southeast Asian peninsula.

Reference:
Lourenco WR, Pham D-S. The genus Chaerilus Simon, 1877 in Vietnam (Scorpiones; Chaerilidae): A possible case of a vicariant species. Comptes Rendus - Biologies. 2014;337:360-4. [Subscription required for full text]

Thanks to professor Lourenco for sending me this paper!

Family Chaerilidae

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