The scorpions of the Estación de Biología Chamela, Jalisco, Mexico with the description of a new species of Mesomexovis (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae) and an identification key

By

De Araújo Lira, André Felipe
González-Santillán, Edmundo

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-6-27

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1243

Pages

241--267

Subjects

Biodiversity , Syntropinae , taxonomy , tropical deciduous forest , Wallacean Shortfall

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1243.146978

 

Abstract

Mesomexovis Gonzalez-Santillan & Prendini, 2013 is a scorpion genus of the Vaejovidae family that comprises seven species, all endemic to Mexico. The present study describes a new species from Estación de Biología Chamela, Jalisco, related to M. occidentalis (Hoffmann, 1931), M. atenango (Francke & Gonzalez-Santillan, 2006), and M. subcristatus (Pocock, 1898). Mesomexovis caxcansp. nov. differs from these species in several respects. Firstly, the carinae of the pedipalp chelae are vestigial. Secondly, the ventral lateral carinae of metasomal segments I–IV are granular, and the ventral submedian carinae of segments I–IV are costate to granular. A microstructural separation between the subex and the basal carina of the capsular area of the hemispermatophore is described for the first time. Mesomexovis caxcansp. nov. represents the eighth species of the genus and the fifth reported in the Estación de Biología Chamela. The other scorpions identified in this location are Centruroides chamela Ponce-Saavedra & Francke, 2011, C. elegans (Thorell, 1876) (Buthidae), Konetontli chamelaensis (Williams, 1986), and Thorellius intrepidus (Thorell, 1876) (Vaejovidae).