Envenomization with Snake Versus Scorpion Venom: Postmortem Repercussions on the Successional Dynamics of Carcass-Attracted Flies in a Forensic Context

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  Envenomization with Snake Versus Scorpion Venom: Postmortem Repercussions on the Successional Dynamics of Carcass-Attracted Flies in a Forensic Context Abstract Background: Animal venoms may alter postmortem carcass conditions and thereby influence carrion-associated insects. However, it remains unclear whether lethal envenomization affects adult Diptera as a broad assemblage-level response or as taxon-specific changes during decomposition. Methods: Fifteen rabbits were assigned to control, snake-envenomized, or scorpion-envenomized treatments (with five carcasses each). Carcasses were exposed under semi-natural conditions, until complete dryness, over 11 days postmortem. Adult flies were collected daily for analyzing abundance at total, family, and selected species levels, using negative GLMM, with carcass identity as a random effect and postmortem day as a nonlinear predictor. Results: A total of 5497 adult flies representing 13 species in seven families was recorded. Total fly...

New Insights on Genetic and Morphological Divergence Among a Buthus Species Complex From Tunisia With the Identification of a New Species

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New Insights on Genetic and Morphological Divergence Among a Buthus Species Complex From Tunisia With the Identification of a New Species

ABSTRACT

The taxonomy of the scorpion genus Buthus is complex due to the considerable increase in newly reported species, their high degree of similarity, and consequently, the great difficulty in their morphological differentiation. Tunisian species are not exempt from this issue, with several references highlighting the need for taxonomic revisions. This study integrates DNA sequence data and morphological assessments to investigate the diversity present in Tunisia and to provide morphological details that facilitate species identification. The results show that most Tunisian specimens are distributed within two clades. One clade comprises four subclades corresponding to B. tunetanus Herbst, 1800, B. paris C. L. Koch, 1839, B. chambiensis Kovařík 2006 and a southern group corresponding probably to B. lourencoi Rossi, Tropea & Yağmur, 2013. The second clade represents a new species described in this study as B. saidnouirai Hajri, Bahri & Harris, sp. nov. No evidence of B. dunlopi Kovařík 2006 have been recorded in the studied samples. Distances between all five species exceed the minimum divergence thresholds for Buthus species. The greatest distance was observed between B. saidnouirai. sp. nov. and the southern group, while the smallest distance was between B. tunetanus and B. paris. Although the genetic differences revealed considerable divergence of the new group from the four remaining species, the morphological assessment did not identify the same pattern. These five species demonstrate a morphological shape gradient in which B. paris and the southern group represent the two extremes, with B. paris being the most ornamented and the latter the least. The new species presents an intermediate morphology. The geographic distributions of the five reported species are discussed in this work according to the topography and orography of the region. Additional lineages known from Algeria may also enter the western fringes of Tunisia.

Acknowledgment: I remain sincerely grateful to Gérard DUPRE for providing me with this manuscript.

Hajri, S., Bahri, L., & Harris, D. J. (2025). New Insights on Genetic and Morphological Divergence Among a Buthus Species Complex From Tunisia With the Identification of a New Species. Ecology and Evolution, 15(12), e72556. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.72556