New Species of Short-Tailed Whip Scorpion Discovered

A duo of arachnologists from Brazil has discovered a new species of short-tailed whip scorpion in eastern Amazon.

Male of Surazomus saturninoae: (A) lateral, (B) dorsal and (C) ventral views. Image credit: G.R.S. Ruiz R.M. Valente, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213268.

“Schizomida (schizomids) are an order of small arachnids that display short-range endemism and generally occur in humid tropical and sub-tropical forests, mainly in leaf litter, caves, tree bark or under stones,” said Dr. Gustavo Ruiz and Dr. Roberta Valente of the Universidade Federal do Pará.

“They are all known as short-tailed whip scorpions, due to the presence of a short flagellum in males and females.”

“The flagellum of the male is held by the female’s chelicerae — appendages in front of the mouth — during copulation in what is known as the mating march.”

“But relatively little is known about the different shapes of male flagellum within the genus Surazomus in terms of evolution, or the mechanism by which the female chelicerae anchor onto the male flagellum.”

The newly-discovered species, named Surazomus saturninoae, is the third species of its genus reported from eastern Amazon.

The single specimen, about 5 mm in length, was collected with pitfall trap in primary upland Amazonian rainforest in Bagre, state of Pará, Brazil.

“The male of Surazomus saturninoae has a distinctive pentagonal flagellum, similar to those of three other species in the genus,” the researchers said.

“The existence and placement of two coupling pockets on the male flagellum offers insight into the position of a couple in the mating march, in particular, how the female chelicerae anchor onto the male flagellum.”

“The findings shed new light on the poorly understood mating march and evolutionary changes that may have occurred in the male flagellum within Surazomus.”

The discovery is reported in a paper published in the journal PLoS ONE.

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G.R.S. Ruiz R.M. Valente. 2019. Description of a new species of Surazomus (Arachnida: Schizomida), with comments on homology of male flagellum and mating march anchorage in the genus. PLoS ONE 14 (3): e0213268; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213268