On R. Kinzelbach‘s euscorpiid specimens from Turkey deposited in the Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz, Germany (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae)
Author
Yağmur, Ersen Aydın
text
Euscorpius
2021
334
1
5
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.5742093
1536-9307
5742093
8689004E-F2F0-400E-BA1D-D337E31D211C
Euscorpius koci
Tropea & Yağmur, 2015
(
Figures 5–6
)
Euscorpius carpathicus
:
Kinzelbach, 1982: 61
(in part).
Euscorpius koci
Tropea & Yağmur, 2015: 26
, figs. 19–36,
40–42; Şenol & Karataş, 2021: 28.
MATERIAL EXAMINED.
Turkey
,
Mersin Province
,
Silifke District
,
Cennet
–Cehennem Caves, entrance of the
Cennet Cave
,
133 m
a. s. l.
,
36°27'09"N
34°06'20"E
,
17 August 1975
,
2 ♂
, leg.
R
. Kinzelbach (NMM/0248)
.
TRICHOBOTHRIAL
AND PECTINAL TOOTH VARIATION
.
The variation observed in 2 examined males is given below.
Pectinal teeth in males
: 9/9 (1), 8/8 (1).
Pedipalp patella trichobothria Pv
: 7/8 (1), 9/9 (1).
Pedipalp patella trichobothria Pe
:
et
= 6/6 (2);
est
= 4/4 (2);
em
4/4 (2);
esb
= 2/2 (2); eb
a
= 4/4 (2); eb = 4/4 (2).
COMMENTS.
Euscorpius koci
was described by Tropea & Yağmur (2015) from the
Mersin Province
; it is characterized by
Pv
= 6,
et
=4. This is the only known species of the genus
Euscorpius
in the Eastern Mediterranean region of
Turkey
. A DNA phylogeny (
Tropea et al., 2016
, fig. 20) places it, together with three more Anatolian taxa (
E. alanyaensis
,
E. gocmeni
, and
E. lycius
) in a clade closest to the mainland Greek species
E. kinzelbachi
and
E. scaber
.
Kinzelbach (1982)
collected
two male
specimens at the entrance of the Cennet Cave, a rather famous locality. The Cennet Cave (in English, “The Heaven Cave”) is a large sinkhole in the Taurus Mountains (
Mersin Province
). It is located next to the Cehennem Cave (in English, “The Hell Cave”), with another large sinkhole. Both caves are also known as the Corycian Caves (in German, “Korykische Grotten”). The entrance of the Cennet Cave is 250 x
110 m
2
; its depth is nearly
70 m
.
To reach its bottom, one descends a 300-step ladder. At the bottom, in the south direction, there is another smaller cave 150 steps deep. In the depth of the cave, there are ruins of a monastery built in the 5th century AD by a man called Paulus and dedicated to Virgin Mary.
Vachon (1951)
reported records of two other scorpion species from the Cennet Cave,
Iurus dufoureius asiaticus
Birula, 1903 (Iuridae)
and
Mesobuthus gibbosus
(Brullé, 1832)
(now
Aegaeobuthus gibbosus
) (
Buthidae
). The
I. d. asiaticus
record was corrected as
Iurus kraepelini
von Ubisch, 1922
by
KovařÍk et al. (2010)
and the species was transferred to the genus
Protoiurus
by
Soleglad et al. (2012)
.
The Cennet Cave is located at the distance of
35 km
from Koramışlı Village, the
type
locality of
Euscorpius koci
. Coloration and trichobothrial pattern of the specimens completely match those reported by Tropea & Yağmur (2015) in
E. koci
. Tropea & Yağmur (2015) reported three localities for species. Recently, Şenol & Karataş (2021) reported three more localities. The present record is the seventh known locality of
E. koci
, all in the
Mersin Province
.