First record of Liocheles nigripes Pocock, 1897 (Scorpiones: Hemiscorpiidae)
from Andhra Pradesh with a checklist of scorpions of the state
S.M. Maqsood Javed 1, ZeeshanA. Mirza 2, Rajesh V. Sanap3 & Farida Tampal3
1,2,3 World Wide Fund for Nature-India
(WWF), APSO, 818, Castle Hills, Road No. 2, Near NMDC, VijayanagarColony, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh 500057, India.
Email: 1javedwwf2007@gmail.com , 2 snakeszeeshan@gmail.com
Date of publication (online): 26 March 2010
Date of publication (print): 26 March 2010
ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)
Editor: Vinod Khanna
Manuscript details:
Ms
# o2375
Received
29 December 2009
Finally
accepted 08 February 2010
Citation: Javed, S.M.M., Z.A. Mirza,
R.V. Sanap & F. Tampal(2010). First record of Liocheles nigripes Pocock, 1897 (Scorpiones: Hemiscorpiidae)
from Andhra Pradesh with a checklist of scorpions of the state. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(3): 783-785.
Copyright: © S.M. Maqsood Javed,Zeeshan A. Mirza, Rajesh V. Sanap & Farida Tampal 2010. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 UnportedLicense. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this
article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by
providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.
Acknowledgements: The authors are very thankful to Shri Hitesh Malhotra, IFS, Principal
Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, Andhra
Pradesh; Shri. R. Hampaiah,
Chairman and Shri V.B. RamanaMurthy, Member Secretary, Andhra Pradesh Biodiversity Board for their constant
support and encouragement. We express our gratitude to ShriAnil Kumar V. Epur, Chairman, WWF-AP State Committee,
Hyderabad and Shri Ravi Singh, Secretary General
& CEO, WWF-India, New Delhi for their constant support and encouragement.
We express our thanks to Shri Swaranjit Sen, IPS (Retd.), Chairman,Shri B. Venkatesham, IAS,
Managing Director and Shri P.V. RamanaReddy, IFS, Executive Director, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation,
Hyderabad for their constant support and for permitting us to conduct
biodiversity studies in APTDC Eco-tourism sites. Special
thanks to Aamod Zambre for
constant support, encouragement and for providing valuable literature.ZM wishes to acknowledge the American ArachnologicalSociety for a generous grant to carry out scorpion study and to Agarwal Jan Seva Charitable Trust
for logistic support. Thanks are also due to BhavansCollege for constant support, encouragement and lab facilities. We thank Mr. R.Sreekar and Mr. M. Seetharamarujufor participating in the survey. Lastly, we would like to thank Mr. P.S.M. Srinivas, Manager Corporate for exploring new places and
all the WWF-Staff of APSO, Hyderabad for their constant support and timely
suggestions.
For Images & Tables – click here
The family Hemiscorpiidaeconsists of 12 genera and 80 species that inhabit all continents except North
America with the majority of its diversity in tropical and subtropical habitats
(Rein 2009). This family
previously known as Ischnuridae Simon, 1879, has been
renamed Liochelidae Fet & Bechly, 2000
since it was homonymous with the damselfly subfamily IshnurinaeFraser, 1957 (Fet & Bechly2000). Subsequently, Soleglad et al. (2005) again changed the name to Hemiscorpiidae. In India, this family is represented by three genera namely Iomachus, Liocheles andChiromachetes. Members of the
genus Liocheles resembleIomachus but can be differentiated on the basis of the tarsi lacking a ventromedian series of small spinulesbetween the setae (Image 4). The
genus Liocheles Sundevall, 1833 is represented in India by two species L. nigripes Pocock,
1897 and L. australasiae Fabricius,
1775, both previously referred to the genus Hormurus Thorell,
1876. L. australasiaeas well as L. nigripesare wide spread, the former being known from India to the western Pacific
islands (Monod & Volschenk 2004; Tikader & Bastawade 1983; Sureshan et al. 2007) and the latter from parts of India,
Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia (Kovařík 2000).
Liochelese nigripes was described by Pocock (1897) based on an immature specimen from Panch Mahal, Gujarat, India (Fet et
al. 2000). Tikader& Bastawade (1983) reported this species from
Gujarat and Rajasthan. The species
has been recently sighted in Chhattisgarh and the distribution includes Udaipur
(Rajasthan), Panch Mahal(Gujarat), Almora (Uttarakhand),Gonda (Uttar Pradesh), Satna(Madhya Pradesh) and Kanger Valley National Park
(Chhattisgarh) (Aamod Zambrepers. comm.). While conducting
faunal surveys in Andhra Pradesh, several specimens of Liocheles nigripes (Images 2 & 3) were recorded
from different parts (Araku Township, Hyderabad
outskirts, Manchirial Town and Maredumilly)
of the state (Image 1) and only two specimens were collected from Araku Township, VishakapatnamDistrict (18050’N & 79042’E), near the Railway
station on 28 February 2009, and deposited in the collection of the
Bombay Natural History Society as BNHS SC 35 and BNHS SC 36. This specimen represents the first
record of this species from the state .
The present communication deals
with the review of the distribution of this species and also provides an
updated checklist of scorpions of Andhra Pradesh (Table 1).
The scorpion collected agrees well
with the descriptions provided by Tikader & Bastawade (1983) and Kovařík(2000), the detailed morphometry is provided in Table
2.
A review of the distribution of L. nigripes reveals it to be widespread in
India as well which is supported by its occurrence in at least seven Indian
states. Its occurrence in Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh is suggestive of its
occurrence in Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Orissa. Furthermore, the record of Liocheles australasiae from Kerala by Sureshan et al.
(2007) needs confirmation if it is indeed L. australasiae or L. nigripes which
will shed light of its occurrence in Kerala and possibly Tamil Nadu.
The
present record is not significant from a biogeographicpoint of view but it is a noteworthy contribution towards the study of Indian
scorpions and their distribution on a broader scale as there is a distinct gap
in distribution records of most species of scorpions and other arachnids, being
merely known from either the type locality or a few scattered localities.
Rao et al. (2005) recorded seven
species of scorpions whereas the recent literature review shows the state
hosting at least eighteen species of scorpions (Table 1).
References
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G. Lowe & M.E. Braunwalder (2000). Catalog of the Scorpions of
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