''Buthus'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...
belonging and being
eponymous
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
to the family
Buthidae
The Buthidae are the largest family of scorpions, containing about 100 genera and 1339 species as of 2022. A few very large genera (''Ananteris'', ''Centruroides'', '' Compsobuthus'', or '' Tityus'') are known, but a high number of species-poor o ...
. It is distributed widely across
northern Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...
, including
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
,
Mauritania
Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
,
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
,
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
,
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
,
Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
,
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
,
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
,
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
,
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
,
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
, as well as the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, including
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
,
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
, and possibly
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
and southern
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Its
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an range includes the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
, southern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, and
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
.
Taxonomy
The genus was introduced by W.E. Leach (1815: 391). It was only the second genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of scorpion as all species known to this date were included in the sole genus '' Scorpio'' Linné
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
, 1758. Leach found '' Scorpio occitanus'' Amoreux, 1789 to differ from the other species of ''Scorpio'' known to him by having eight eyes (two median eyes and six lateral eyes) instead of six (two median eyes and four lateral eyes). C.L. Koch (1837) expanded this concept and subdivided the scorpions in four families according to the number of their eyes. He named his second family, the "eight-eyed scorpions", Buthides. The use of the number of eyes in the classification of scorpions has been discarded since, however the name Buthidae is still in use for the most diverse family of scorpions.
Diversity
The content of this genus may vary, depending on the authority. The best known species, ''B. occitanus'', was once thought to be widespread from southern France, throughout Spain and Morocco, along the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
, and eastwards as far as Israel. However, recent research has shown that it forms a highly diverse cluster of closely related but separate species. A number of taxa formerly considered as subspecies or "varieties" have been granted full species status, others have been described as entirely new. The Moroccan Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
region is a hot-spot of diversity with at least 14 species. This diversity is explained by the topography
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
which led to a high degree of speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...
in populations which are separated from others by mountain ranges. Four species are considered to occur in Europe: ''B. occitanus'' (southern France, eastern and southern Spain), ''B. montanus'' (mountain ranges of southeastern Spain), ''B. ibericus'' (western Spain and Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
), and ''B. kunti'' (Cyprus). At least 75 species are known, many of which are quite similar in appearance:
*'' Buthus adrianae'' Rossi, 2013
*'' Buthus ahaggar'' Ythier, Sadine, Haddadi & Lourenco, 2021
*'' Buthus ajax'' (C. L. Koch, 1839)
*'' Buthus alacanti'' Teruel & Turiel, 2020
*'' Buthus albengai'' Lourenço, 2003
*'' Buthus amri'' Lourenço, Yağmur & Duhem, 2010
*'' Buthus apiatus'' Lourenço, El Bouhissi & Sadine, 2020
*'' Buthus atlantis'' Pocock, 1889
*'' Buthus aures'' Lourenço & Sadine, 2016
*'' Buthus awashensis'' Kovařík, 2011
*'' Buthus baeticus'' Teruel & Turiel, 2020
*'' Buthus barcaeus'' Birula, 1909
*'' Buthus berberensis'' Pocock, 1900
*'' Buthus bobo'' Ythier, 2021
*'' Buthus bonito'' Lourenço & Geniez, 2005
*'' Buthus boumalenii'' Touloun & Boumezzough, 2011
*'' Buthus boussaadi'' Lourenço, Chichi & Sadine, 2018
*'' Buthus brignolii'' Lourenço, 2003
*'' Buthus centroafricanus'' Lourenço, 2016
*'' Buthus chambiensis'' Kovařík, 2006
*'' Buthus confluens'' Lourenço, Touloun & Boumezzough, 2012
*'' Buthus danyii'' Rossi, 2017
*'' Buthus delafuentei'' Teruel & Turiel, 2020
*'' Buthus draa'' Lourenço & Slimani, 2004
*'' Buthus dunlopi'' Kovařík, 2006
*'' Buthus duprei'' Rossi & Tropea, 2016
*'' Buthus egyptiensis'' Lourenço, 2012
*'' Buthus elhennawyi'' Lourenço, 2005
*'' Buthus elizabethae'' Lourenço, 2005
*'' Buthus elmoutakoualiki'' Lourenço & Qi, 2006
*'' Buthus elongatus'' Rossi, 2012
*'' Buthus gabani'' Ythier, 2021
*'' Buthus garcialorcai'' Teruel & Turiel, 2020
*'' Buthus goyffoni'' Abidi, Sadine & Lourenco, 2021
*'' Buthus halius'' (C. L. Koch, 1839)
*'' Buthus hassanini'' Lourenço, Duhem & Cloudsley-Thompson, 2012
*'' Buthus ibericus'' Lourenço & Vachon, 2004
*'' Buthus intermedius'' (Ehrenberg, 1829)
*'' Buthus intumescens'' (Hemprich ''in'' Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828)
*'' Buthus israelis'' Shulov & Amitai, 1959
*'' Buthus jianxinae'' Lourenço, 2005
*'' Buthus karoraensis'' Rossi & Tropea, 2016
*'' Buthus kunti'' Yağmur, Koç & Lourenço, 2011
*'' Buthus labuschagnei'' Lourenço, 2015
*'' Buthus lienhardi'' Lourenço, 2003
*'' Buthus lourencoi'' Rossi, Tropea & Yagmur, 2013
*'' Buthus lusitanus'' Lourenço, 2021
*'' Buthus malhommei'' Vachon, 1949
*'' Buthus manchego'' Teruel & Turiel, 2020
*'' Buthus mardochei'' Simon, 1878
*'' Buthus mariaefrancae'' Lourenço, 2003
*'' Buthus maroccanus'' Birula, 1903
*'' Buthus montanus'' Lourenço & Vachon, 2004
*'' Buthus nabataeus'' Lourenço, Abu Afifeh & Al-Saraireh, 2021
*'' Buthus nigrovesiculosus'' Hirst, 1925
*'' Buthus occidentalis'' Lourenço, Sun & Zhou, 2009
*'' Buthus occitanus'' (Amoreux, 1789) type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
*'' Buthus orientalis'' Lourenço & Simon, 2012
*'' Buthus oudjanii'' Lourenço, 2017
*'' Buthus paris'' (C.L. Koch, 1839)
*'' Buthus pedrosousai'' Teruel & Turiel, 2021
*'' Buthus pococki'' Kovarik, Stahlavsky & Elmi, 2020
*'' Buthus prudenti'' Lourenço & Leguin, 2012
*'' Buthus pusilus'' Lourenço, 2013
*'' Buthus pyrenaeus'' Ythier, 2021
*'' Buthus rochati'' Lourenço, 2003
*'' Buthus saharicus'' Sadine, Bissati & Lourenço, 2015
*'' Buthus serrano'' Teruel & Turiel, 2020
*'' Buthus somalilandus'' Kovarik, Stahlavsky & Elmi, 2020
*'' Buthus tassili'' Lourenço, 2002
*'' Buthus trinacrius'' Lourenço & Rossi, 2013
*'' Buthus tunetanus'' (Herbst, 1800)
*'' Buthus yemenensis'' Lourenço, 2008
*'' Buthus zeylensis'' Pocock, 1900
General characteristics
Members of ''Buthus'' are generally medium-sized scorpions (40–85 mm total length). Coloration is generally yellow, with different tones of brown to red-brown. Darker patterns may occur on various parts of the body. The pedipalps
Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi) are the second pair of appendages of chelicerates – a group of arthropods including spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders. The pedipalps are lateral to the chelicerae ("jaws") and ...
(pincers) are relatively gracile with slender digits and a globose base. The cephalothorax
The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...
bears strong ornamentation with small granules arranged to form carinae (ridges). The most prominent carinae form a lyra
Lyra (; Latin for lyre, from Greek ''λύρα'') is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was ...
-shaped pattern behind the median eyes in many species. The mesosoma is also often granulated and commonly bears three ridges on the tergites
A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; plural ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The anterior edge is called the 'base' and posterior edge is called the 'apex' or 'mar ...
. The metasoma is slender but not thin with well developed carinae of granules, and some short spines in some species. A large vesicle terminates in a sharp and long aculeus (stinger).[
]
Toxicity
Though generally not considered lethal, the venom of ''Buthus'' species is considered of medical importance. They form a considerable part of scorpion envenomation cases, especially in northern Africa. According to a study by Touloun et al. (2001) scorpions of the ''B. occitanus'' complex caused 26% of all recorded cases in southwestern Morocco, but none of them resulted in death.
Habitat
Species of ''Buthus'' live in semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
to arid
A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ar ...
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
in various terrains, from mountain valleys to coastal plains mostly with sparse vegetation, even in desert
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
s. As most scorpions they are predominantly nocturnal
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
and hide in shallow burrows, most commonly below stones.
References
External links
* Images of various species of ''Buthus''
The Scorpion Fauna. Scorpions of Europe
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2928896
Buthidae
Scorpions of Africa