# Androctonus key



## Ythier (Nov 2, 2006)

Hi there,
Please find below the Lourenço's Androctonus key translated into English (copyright Lourenço 2005).
It was sometimes not easy to find the good english words to translate the french ones, especially the colors, but anyway the key below is surely more understandable for you than the French one in the Lourenço's paper  .
Hope it will be useful for you guys.
Cheers,
Eric


1-Overall colour pale yellow, yellow ochre, reddish yellow or reddish brown, with sometimes dark areas …… 2
-Overall colour dark: dark green, brown-chocolate or blackish …… 7

2-Metasoma with last segments enlarged; pronounced furrow on back side of the segments; careen with spiniform granules …… 3
-Metasoma with same size segments; non-pronounced furrow on back side of the segments; carinae with rounded granules …… _A.amoreuxi_

3-Predominant colour pale yellow or yellowish …… 4
-Predominant colour reddish yellow or reddish brown …… 6

4-Metasoma with last segment not very enlarged; not very pronounced furrow on back side of the segments; chelae not very stocky …… _A.finitimus_
-Metasoma with last segment very enlarged; very pronounced furrow on back side of the segments; stocky chelae …… 5

5-Colour pale yellow, with dark areas on chelae and sometimes on distal metasomal segments and telson; very pronounced furrow on back side of metasomal segments; male’s lateral and intermediate carinae without any spinoid granules …… _A.australis_
-Colour dark yellow, without any dark areas; very pronounced furrow on back side of metasomal segments; male’s lateral and intermediate carinae with spinoid granules …… _A.dekeyseri_

6-Colour reddish yellow, with metasomal segments IV-V, the telson and the internal side of femur and tibia darkened …… _A.baluchicus_
-Even colour reddish brown on body, legs and pedipalps …… _A.maelfaiti_

7-Colour from dark green to brown/reddish brown …… 8
-Colour brown-chocolate, very dark or blackish …… 11

8-Colour dark green, sometimes brownish, anal frame with 4 lobes; punctuated telson vesicle ……. _A.hoggarensis_
-Color from pale brown to reddish brown; anal frame with 3 lobes; granulated telson vesicle …… 9

9-Spiniform telson vesicle granules; edge of fixed and movable pedipalp fingers with 15-16 rows of granules …… _A.liouvillei_
-Rounded telson vesicle granules; edge of fixed and movable pedipalp fingers with 13-15 rows of granules …… 10

10-Telson vesicle with 3 series of big granules on the ventral side; not very stocky chelae ……. _A.crassicauda_
-Telson vesicle with thin and condensed granulation on the ventral side; stocky chelae …… _A.gonneti_

11-Metasomal segment tegument with punctuated areas …… _A.sergenti_
-Metasomal segment tegument without any punctuated areas …… 12

12-Thin chelae with long fingers; telson vesicle almost smooth; prosoma and tergites moderately granulated …… _A.bicolor_
-Moderately stocky chelae with not very long fingers; telson vesicle with some granules on the ventral side; prosoma and tergites very granulated …… _A.mauritanicus_


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## fusion121 (Nov 2, 2006)

Great job Eric, I have the paper but my french is pretty poor so this is very useful.:clap:


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## Thiscordia (Nov 2, 2006)

Wow....really nice piece of information here.
Thanks Eric for taking the time.
-.Raul


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## RodG (Nov 2, 2006)

Thanks so much for the translation, Eric!!!


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## sick4x4 (Nov 2, 2006)

hey eric have you read the full  Lourenco paper ???? any thoughts on it? alex gave me a translated version it really updates what we thought of the Androctonus species...


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## Ythier (Nov 3, 2006)

Hi,
Yes I did. I sometimes find strange some specific status changes in Lourenço's papers...but who I am to judge the Lourenço's work  
Cheers,
Eric


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## musihuto (Nov 3, 2006)

ummm...  where might one find the original french version of this?

          thanks! 
                     - munis


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## Bigboy (Nov 4, 2006)

This is so sweet to have, thankyou.


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## EAD063 (Nov 5, 2006)

mush.. hate you that you are bi lingual, i searched endlessly for a good eng. version..... lol


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## redhourglass (Nov 5, 2006)

Hi.

Thanks Eric for the translation.  Very interesting but am curious as to why he did a revision on Androctonus when he primarily works with New World neotropical fauna?



musihuto said:


> ummm...  where might one find the original french version of this?
> 
> thanks!
> - munis


Munis, found this abstract on a google scholar search:



> Wilson R. LOURENÇO
> Département de Systématique et Evolution, USM 0602, Section Arthropodes (Arachnologie), Muséum nationald’Histoire naturelle, 61 rue de Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France.
> 
> New taxonomic considerations on the species of the genus Androctonus Ehrenberg, 1828 and description of two new species (Scorpiones, Buthidae).- Results of the study of an interesting collection of scorpions of the genus Androctonus Ehrenberg,1828 from North African and the Middle East, now deposited in the Geneva Museum, are presented. The collection contains specimens of 13 species, two of which are new and described here: Androctonus maelfaiti sp. n. and Androctonus dekeyseri sp. n. A key to all these species is provided. The following taxonomic changes are proposed: Androctonus australis garzonii Goyffon & Lamy and Androctonus
> ...


I'm sure a pdf is out there for distribution.

Sinc. Chad


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## Ythier (Nov 5, 2006)

redhourglass said:


> Hi.
> 
> Thanks Eric for the translation.  Very interesting but am curious as to why he did a revision on Androctonus when he primarily works with New World neotropical fauna?


Hi Chad,
M.Vachon, who worked a lot on North African scorpions, was the professor of W.Lourenço, so Lourenço worked also on those scorpions.
The biggest collection of North african scorpions is at the Paris' Museum (Maghreb french-speaking countries) and there was still some confusion in Buthus an Androtonus' taxonomy after Vachon's death, so I think Lourenço wanted to finish this work.
Lourenço primarily works with New World neotropical fauna (especially Brazil, as he's a native of this country), but most of papers on North African and Middle East scorpions are also from him. He work also a lot on China, and he identified all the Madagascar scorpion fauna.
Cheers
Eric


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## Gigas (Nov 5, 2006)

three Cheers for Eric!!!!:clap::clap::clap: Before i had to HAND TYPE extracts from the Andro revision into translators as the documents were scans rather than type out.

Excellent and thank you so much!


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## redhourglass (Nov 6, 2006)

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the additional informations.  I wasn't aware that Lourenco studied under Vachon :? .  That truly must of been an honor to do so. :worship: 

Cheers.

Chad


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## skinheaddave (Nov 6, 2006)

Ythier said:


> He work also a lot on China, and he identified all the Madagascar scorpion fauna.


Does the man know no limits?  It often amazes me that the man has done/is doing so much and yet is so accesable.  He even took some strides into Opisthacanthus which has proven to be most useful for me.   

Cheers,
Dave


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## Ythier (Nov 7, 2006)

skinheaddave said:


> Does the man know no limits?  It often amazes me that the man has done/is doing so much and yet is so accesable.  He even took some strides into Opisthacanthus which has proven to be most useful for me.
> 
> Cheers,
> Dave


Yes, I did his PhD on Opistacanthus and he really like this genus, he work a lot, probably too much, I'm always flabbergasted of the number of papers he publish per month.


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## Michiel (Nov 7, 2006)

The number of published papers is unbelieveable!!!!! The number of papers he's working on is also enormous. Does this man sleep? Does he have a social life? Is he married and if so, does he actually see his wife now and then? Is he in fact human and not an alien, simple beamed down to earth to excell our evolutionary process???
It must be very inspiring to work with him.

Eric, who is Sabine? Some student of him?? He called al lot of scorpions after her......


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## Ythier (Nov 7, 2006)

Michiel said:


> The number of published papers is unbelieveable!!!!! The number of papers he's working on is also enormous. Does this man sleep? Does he have a social life? Is he married and if so, does he actually see his wife now and then? Is he in fact human and not an alien, simple beamed down to earth to excell our evolutionary process???
> It must be very inspiring to work with him.
> 
> Eric, who is Sabine? Some student of him?? He called al lot of scorpions after her......


I think it's his wife but I'm not sure. Describing scorpions in honor of womens is characteristic of him


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## fusion121 (Nov 7, 2006)

Ythier said:


> Describing scorpions in honor of womens is characteristic of him



And quite a few other taxonomists strangely enough...


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## Prymal (Nov 7, 2006)

skinheaddave said:


> Does the man know no limits?  It often amazes me that the man has done/is doing so much and yet is so accesable.  He even took some strides into Opisthacanthus which has proven to be most useful for me.
> 
> Cheers,
> Dave


Dave, 

And he's off in Kenya until the end of the month. Dr. Lourenco has an energy and dedication that few can match and his knowledge regarding scorpions is simply nebulous.

Take care...Luc


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## Prymal (Nov 7, 2006)

Michiel said:


> The number of published papers is unbelieveable!!!!! The number of papers he's working on is also enormous. Does this man sleep? Does he have a social life? Is he married and if so, does he actually see his wife now and then? Is he in fact human and not an alien, simple beamed down to earth to excell our evolutionary process???
> It must be very inspiring to work with him.
> 
> Eric, who is Sabine? Some student of him?? He called al lot of scorpions after her......


Michiel,

I've been compiling a bibliography of his works since (1978?) and I'm already on 4 pages and still have many, many more papers to list!
Also, Eric forgot to mention that he's very down to earth guy and quite a pleasant individual overall.

Luc


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## Prymal (Nov 7, 2006)

musihuto said:


> ummm...  where might one find the original french version of this?
> 
> thanks!
> - munis



Munis,

I don't know if it's available online or not. I only have it in hardcopy and my scanner's down. Maybe someone on AB has it in .pdf?

Luc


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## Ythier (Nov 7, 2006)

Prymal said:


> he's off in Kenya until the end of the month.


For holidays only... I asked him to look for some scorpions, but I think he doesn't want to work during holidays


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## Prymal (Nov 7, 2006)

Eric,

I trust you are well. Can't blame the man not wanting to work on holiday 

Luc


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## Nikos (Nov 9, 2006)

fusion121 said:


> And quite a few other taxonomists strangely enough...


oh well women (and actualy not the whole "creature" but only a a small part  ) makes the world go round....
so imo its not that strange to name scorpions after them....


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## errit (Dec 18, 2006)

Talking about Androctonus keys.
I have a question about them and i know this questions allready has been answerd on the boards, but even with using the search function i couldnt't retrieve it.
What are the differences betrween A. Crassicauda and A. Bicolor.
I need this to make a positive I.D.


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## Nikos (Dec 18, 2006)

errit said:


> Talking about Androctonus keys.
> I have a question about them and i know this questions allready has been answerd on the boards, but even with using the search function i couldnt't retrieve it.
> What are the differences betrween A. Crassicauda and A. Bicolor.
> I need this to make a positive I.D.


check #10 and 12 on the key


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## errit (Dec 19, 2006)

vardoulas said:


> check #10 and 12 on the key


Thanks.
I was also referring to the difference in granulation of the 1st metasoma segment between these 2 species. A difference wich was mentioned in an older thread. Unfortunatly i forgot this I.D. Key:wall: But maybe am confused with the granulations of the telson. I don't know...
I recently purchased a new scorpion sold as A. Crassicauda. but am not entirely sure about this. maybe it is A. Bicolor instead of A.C. I don't have a digital camera to make a picture so i.d. could be made.


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