A new species of Leiurus Ehrenberg (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Sinai, Egypt and comments on its relationships with L. quinquestriatus and L. hebraeus using morphological and molecular evidence

 

A new species of Leiurus Ehrenberg (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Sinai, Egypt and comments on its relationships with L. quinquestriatus and L. hebraeus using morphological and molecular evidence

Abstract 

The genus Leiurus was first described by Ehrenberg in 1828 as Androctonus (Leiurus) quinquestriatus. For almost two centuries, it was considered monotypic, with only two valid subspecies: Leiurus quinquestriatus quinquestriatus (Ehrenberg, 1828) and Leiurus quinquestriatus hebraeus (Birula, 1908). However, over the last 20 years, several new species of Leiurus have been described in Africa and the Middle East. Despite this, some populations, such as those in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, remained poorly defined. Previous studies suggested that the Sinai population is distinct from both L. quinquestriatus and L. hebraeus (Birula, 1908). In this study, we conducted a more comprehensive comparison of the Sinai population and L. quinquestriatus and L. hebraeus using morphological and molecular evidence. Our results suggest that the Sinai population indeed represents a distinct species, which we describe based on this evidence.

Ahmed Badry, Mostafa Salehi, Moustafa M. H. Sarhan, Mahmoud Youness, Wilson R. Lourenço, et al.. A new species of Leiurus Ehrenberg (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Sinai, Egypt and comments on its relationships with L. quinquestriatus and L. hebraeus using morphological and molecular evidence.. Faunitaxys, 2023, 11 (54), pp.1-10. ⟨hal-04193325⟩ https://hal.science/hal-04193325