''Paruroctonus conclusus'' is a species 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 ...

in the genus '' Paruroctonus''. It lives in the deserts of

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

where it associates with alkali clay soils in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

area of eastern

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

. ''P. conclusus'' is an

alkali sink An alkali sink is a salty basin land form. The term may also refer to a North American desert vegetation type (biome) characteristic of that landform.Pam MacKay, Mojave Desert Wildflowers, 2nd Ed., p. 15-16 Rainwater drains to the basin and collec ...

specialist species with an extremely small range.

Discovery

Photographs of a new unknown scorpion species were uploaded to the

citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...

platform

iNaturalist iNaturalist is a social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its website or from its mobile applic ...

in 2013. ''Paruroctonus conclusus'' was described alongside '' Paruroctonus soda'', both species having come to the attention of high school students Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes when uploaded observations could not be assigned to a known species. They were assisted by Lauren Esposito of the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

and acted as first authors when describing the new scorpions in 2022.

Distribution and conservation

The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''conclusus'', Latin for "confined", was given to this species based upon its very limited known range. Though no formal assessments have taken place yet, ''P. conclusus'' is only known to exist in a strip of unprotected land less than 2 kilometers in length around the playa

Koehn Lake Koehn Lake is a dry lake, and seasonally endorheic lake, in the Fremont Valley of the Mojave Desert, in eastern Kern County, California. Geography The valley is northeast of California City, and east of Red Rock Canyon State Park. The lake i ...

. Given the small distribution, this species is extremely vulnerable to

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

via infrastucture or residential development projects. The discoverers sought to have it listed as a threatened species in their novel species publication for these reasons.

Reference

Animals described in 2022 Vaejovidae Fauna of California {{scorpion-stub