# Tityus serrulatus & Tityus stigmurus



## Michael (Mar 13, 2005)

Hi all

Can somebody tell me the difference between Tityus serrulatus and Tityus stigmurus? Or is T.stigmurus only a new name?

Thanks

Michael


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## fusion121 (Mar 13, 2005)

Hi
As far as I'm aware Tityus serrulatus was reclassified as a subspecies of the Tityus stigmurus complex , its new name is Tityus stigmurus confluenciata.


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## Ythier (Mar 13, 2005)

...according to Lourenço, but some other authors (Fet & co) does not seems to be agree and seems to prefer the species T.serrulatus.
But who is The Tityus specialist ? our French scorpiologist Wilson !


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## fusion121 (Mar 13, 2005)

Considering the amount he has published on Tityus he certainly seems to be the expert, though T. serrulatus does sound nice.


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## redhourglass (Mar 14, 2005)

Hello Eric and all,

Why do the other authors not accept the change?

Curious,

Sinc. Chad



			
				Ythier said:
			
		

> ...according to Lourenço, but some other authors (Fet & co) does not seems to be agree and seems to prefer the species T.serrulatus.
> But who is The Tityus specialist ? our French scorpiologist Wilson !


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## Ythier (Mar 14, 2005)

Hi Chad,
They still think that it's a distinct species and not a morph of T.stigmurus, but I don't remember why (probably again a mitochondrial story...), I can't remember in which paper I saw that. I will try to search.
@Fusion : yes I prefered also the name serrulatus  
Cheers,
Eric


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## Nazgul (Mar 14, 2005)

Hi,

the explanation in the catalog is that Fet et al don´t take the paper by Lourenco as a valid description. It´s mainly on the finding of a sexual population of T. serrulatus and the revision is added. The main point is not that they don´t think T. serrulatus could be T. stigmurus. They just don´t take the description for valid according to the rules of the zoological nomenclature and therefor are still using the term T. serrulatus in the catalog. 

Greetings
Alex


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## fusion121 (Mar 14, 2005)

This was what Lourenco (1999) had to say on the matter, interestingly in the paper he does provide "Morphological characters of sexual and parthenogentic populations of the confluenciata morph", but doesn't compare to T. stigmurus I guess thats why its not valid. 




> Lourenco (1981) suggested that T. serrulatus was closely related to Tityus stigmurus(Thorell 1877), a bisexual species with a range of distribution further north of T. serrulatus. Several other authors had discussed the status of these two species and their possible relationship. In the opinion of some (Pesso 1935; Mello-Leitao 1939; Eickstedt 1983), both species should be considered distinct. Others asserted that, before about 1920, Tityus stigmurus had been a common species in the central and southern regions of Brazil (States of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Goia´s), and that the two species are varieties of a single species (Mello-Campos 1924; Vellard 1932). A few years ago, Lourenco (unpubl.) checked the notes of Vellard and some of his collected material. This confirmed that Tityus stigmurus was undoubtedly a common species in the State of Minas Gerais and south of Goia´s, until at least the 19th Century (Lourenco & Cloudsley-Thompson 1996). Lourenco & Cloudsley-Thompson (1996) and Lourenco et al. (1996) suggested that the sexual and the parthenogenetic populations of a complex T. stigmurus/T. serrulatus might correspond respectively to the northern range of T. stigmurus and the southern range of T. serrulatus in Brazil. However, recent unpublished field observations by Lourenco show that both the morphs T. serrulatus (= confluenciata) and T. stigmurus (= unifasciata) reproduce by parthenogenesis. Moreover, the sexual individuals of T. stigmurus occur in an undisturbed region of Exu in the State of Pernambuco, whereas the parthenogenetic populations are found among human communities along the coastal regions of its northern range.


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## Ythier (Mar 14, 2005)

Thanks Alex and Fusion


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## Michael (Mar 14, 2005)

Thanks for the info all


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