A new species of Androctonus from the Najd Plateau of Saudi Arabia (Scorpiones, Buthidae)

By

Yağmur, Ersen Aydın
R. Alqahtani, Abdulaziz
Badry, Ahmed

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-12-3

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1262

Pages

33--59

Subjects

COI , Description , molecular phylogeny , Morphology , phylogenetic analysis

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1262.163047

 

Abstract

<br> A new scorpion species,<br> Androctonus najdensis<br> sp. nov.<br> , is described and illustrated from Saudi Arabia. It is compared with existing species from the Middle East and Iran, notably<br> A. crassicauda<br> (Olivier, 1807) and the recently described<br> A. tihamicus<br> Alqahtani, Yağmur &amp; Badry, 2023. Molecular analysis using the COI mitochondrial gene revealed a genetic divergence of 7.0 to 11% between<br> A. najdensis<br> sp. nov.<br> and<br> A. crassicauda<br> sensu lato samples from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. The combination of molecular and morphological data supports the recognition of the Najd populations as a distinct species. Additionally, an identification key for<br> Androctonus<br> species in Iran and the Middle East is provided.<br>