Systematic Revision of the European Species of Buthus Leach, 1815 (Scorpiones

The Palearctic buthid scorpion genus Buthus Leach, 1815, distributed from southwestern Europe (southern France and the Iberian Peninsula) across Africa north of the Sahara, to the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, has undergone extensive taxonomic revision in the past two decades. Despite these efforts, its taxonomic composition remains confused, perhaps nowhere more so than in the Iberian Peninsula, where 20 putative species were recognized in the past two decades. Molecular phylogenetic studies of Buthus in northwestern Africa and southwestern Europe, based on a few, mostly mitochondrial gene loci, recovered a monophyletic origin for the European clade of Buthus and suggested the existence of several distinct lineages on the Iberian Peninsula. However, relationships with the species of Buthus from the North African Maghreb remained ambiguous. Morphological descriptions of new or revalidated species of Buthus, based in part on the molecular phylogenies but lacking robust diagnoses, and making little attempt to consider geographical variation, compounded the confusion. The present contribution provides a comprehensive, integrative revision of the European species of Buthus based on samples, including topotypes, collected across the known distribution, rigorous phylogenetic analyses combining morphology, nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences, morphometric analyses, and ecological data. Nine valid species of Buthus are recognized across France, Portugal, and Spain, and 10 new synonyms presented: Buthus delafuentei Teruel and Turiel, 2020 = Buthus gonzalezdelavegai González-Moliné and Armas, 2024, syn. n.; Buthus elongatus Rossi, 2021; Buthus garcialorcai Teruel and Turiel, 2020; Buthus halius (C.L. Koch, 1839) = Androctonus ajax C.L. Koch, 1839, syn. n. = Buthus gabani Ythier, 2021, syn. n. = Buthus castellano Teruel and Turiel, 2022, syn, n.; Buthus iaspis Teruel and Turiel, 2022; Buthus ibericus Lourenço and Vachon, 2004 = Buthus baeticus Teruel and Turiel, 2020, syn. n.; Buthus manchego Teruel and Turiel, 2020 = Buthus alacanti Teruel and Turiel, 2020, syn. n. = Buthus serrano Teruel and Turiel, 2020, syn. n. = Buthus pedrosousai Teruel and Turiel, 2021, syn. n.; Buthus montanus Lourenço and Vachon, 2004; Buthus occitanus (Amoreux, 1789) = Buthus pyrenaeus Ythier, 2021, syn. n. = Buthus balmensis Ythier and Laborieux, 2022, syn. n. Revised, comparative diagnoses and illustrations are provided for each species, together with a distribution map and key to their identification

Biology · Buthidae · Scorpion · Venom · Zoology · Amphibian and Reptile Biology · Ecology · Spider Taxonomy and Behavior Studies · Venomous Animal Envenomation and Studies