Studies of North American scorpions of the genera Uroctonus and Vejovis (Scorpionida, Vejovidae). Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 148, article 4
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Abstract
"A systematic review of some American vejovine scorpions is presented with analyses of their characters and relationships. The subfamily Uroctoninae is rejected as a synonym of the Vejovinae. The genus Uroctonus, heretofore represented by the single taxon mordax, is redefined and the number of species increased to 14. Most of the characters on which the genus Uroctonus was formerly based were found to be intergradient to those of Vejovis. Although the genus is maintained on the basis of a combination of characters, it seems clear that the species were derived from the same basic stock. The trichobothrial patterns of Uroctonus and Vejovis are essentially identical and dffer strikingly from those of the related genera Anuroctonus and Hadrurus. The genotype Uroctonus mordax ranges from Oregon south into southern California and lives mostly in mesic, mountainous habitats. Most of the new species occur in California and Baja California but three others are found from southern Arizona to western Texas and Chihuahua. Two of the species, montereus and sequoia, are unusual in having only a single subdistal tooth present on the outer carina of the movable finger of the chelicera, instead of the normal two of the subfamily. A pale species with small eyes and slender, smooth cauda, grahami from Samwell Cave in California, seems to be a cave-adapted type, but its modifications may only indicate an endogean habit. Descriptions of various species of Vejovis are also included in the present paper. The identity of Vejovis minimus Kraepelin has been established by study of the type material from the Zoologisches Museum in Hamburg, Germany"--P. 551.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 607-608).