Scorpiones

Palaeophonus hunteri, from Fritsch (1904).

Belongs within: Euchelicerata.
Contains: Orthosterni.

The Scorpiones, scorpions, are a highly distinctive group of arachnids in which the pedipalps form large chelae and the rear section of the opisthosoma is modified to form a mobile 'tail' bearing a terminal sting. Modern scorpions are invariably terrestrial but aquatic habits have been suggested for the earliest known Silurian–Devonian scorpions such as Palaeoscorpius, Proscorpius and the Protoscorpiones. Members of the extinct Palaeoscorpiones and modern Neoscorpionina possess an enlarged prosomal sternum separating the leg coxae; in Palaeoscorpius and the Palaeophonidae, the coxae are positioned anterior to the sternum. Palaeoscorpius devonicus has been suggested to have been an entirely gnathobasic feeder, in contrast to the extraintestinal feeding of modern scorpions (Giribet et al. 2002).

<==Scorpiones [Apoxypodes, Branchioscorpionina, Protoscorpiones, Scorpiniata, Scorpionida]
    |--Palaeoscorpius devonicus Lehmann 1944 GE02, S93
    `--+--Palaeoscorpiones S93
       |    |--Archaeoctonoidea S93
       |    |    |--Archaeoctonus glaber (Peach 1883) S93
       |    |    |--Pseudoarchaeoctonus denticulatus (Kjellesvig-Waering 1986) S93
       |    |    `--Loboarchaeoctonus squamosus (Kjellesvig-Waering 1986) S93
       |    `--Proscorpioidea S93
       |         |--Proscorpius osborni Whitefield 1885 LSE13, F04
       |         |--Archaeophonus eurypteroides Kjellesvig-Waering 1966 S93
       |         |--Stoermeroscorpio delicatus Kjellesvig-Waering 1986 S93
       |         `--Labriscorpio alliedensis Leary 1980 S93
       `--+--Neoscorpionina S93
          |    |--Orthosterni LSE13
          |    `--Paleosterni S93
          |         |--Allobuthiscorpius major (Wills 1960) S93
          |         `--Buthiscorpius pescei Vachon & Heyler 1985 S93
          `--+--Dolichophonus loudonensis (Laurie 1899) GE02, S93
             `--Palaeophonidae GE02
                  |--Allopalaeophonus GE02
                  `--Palaeophonus Thorell & Lindström 1884 LSE13, F04
                       |--P. hunteri Pocock 1902 F04
                       |--P. londonensis Laurie 1889 F04
                       `--P. nuncius Thorell & Lindström 1885 F04

Scorpiones incertae sedis:
  Mesoscorpionina S93
    |--Phoxiscorpio peachi Kjellesvig-Waering 1986 S93
    `--Mesophonus maculatus Brauer et al. 1889 S93
  Dacurus galbineus (Koch 1838) [=Centrurus galbineus, C. galbinus (l. c.), Caucon galbineus] K92
  Broteochactas V-MDR07
    |--B. mapuera Lourenço 1988 L-M-HG08
    `--B. trezzi V-MDR07
  Pseudouroctonus apacheanus (Gertsch & Soleglad 1972) AS-N08
  Alacran tartarus Francke 1982 L95
  Liassoscorpionides G88
  Waeringoscorpio GD14
    |--W. hefteri GD14
    `--W. westerwaldensis GD14
  Brontoscorpius anglicus Kjellesvig-Waering 1972 F14
  Hubeiscorpio gracilitarsis Walossek et al. 1990 S93
  Prearcturus gigas Woodward 1871 S93
  Butheolus thalassinus S89

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[AS-N08] Aguiar, A. P. N., P. L. Santana-Neto, J. R. B. Souza & C. M. R. de Albuquerque. 2008. Relationship between litter characteristics and female size in Tityus stigmurus (Scorpiones, Buthidae). Journal of Arachnology 36 (2): 464–467.

[F14] Francke, O. F. 2014. Biodiversidad de Arthropoda (Chelicerata: Arachnida ex Acari) en México. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 85 (Suppl.): 408–418.

[F04] Fritsch, A. 1904. Palaeozoische Arachniden. Selestverlag: Prague.

[GD14] Garwood, R. J., & J. Dunlop. 2014. Three-dimensional reconstruction and the phylogeny of extinct chelicerate orders. PeerJ 2: e641.

[GE02] Giribet, G., G. D. Edgecombe, W. C. Wheeler & C. Babbitt. 2002. Phylogeny and systematic position of Opiliones: a combined analysis of chelicerate relationships using morphological and molecular data. Cladistics 18: 5–70.

[G88] Gray, J. 1988. Evolution of the freshwater ecosystem: the fossil record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 62: 1–214.

[K92] Karsch, F. 1892. Arachniden von Ceylon und von Minikoy gesammelt von den Herren Doctoren P. und F. Sarasin. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift 36 (2): 267–310.

[LSE13] Legg, D. A., M. D. Sutton & G. D. Edgecombe. 2013. Arthropod fossil data increase congruence of morphological and molecular phylogenies. Nature Communications 4 (2485): 1–7.

[L95] Locket, N. A. 1995. A new ischnurid scorpion from the Northern Territory, Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 52: 191–198.

[L-M-HG08] Lo-Man-Hung, N. F., T. A. Gardner, M. A. Ribeiro-Júnior, J. Barlow & A. B. Bonaldo. 2008. The value of primary, secondary, and plantation forests for Neotropical epigeic arachnids. Journal of Arachnology 36 (2): 394–401.

[S93] Selden, P. A. 1993. Arthropoda (Aglaspidida, Pycnogonida and Chelicerata). In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 297–320. Chapman & Hall: London.

[S89] Simon, E. 1889. Butheolus thalassinus. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, 6^e série 9: xcviii–xcix.

[V-MDR07] Villarreal-Manzanilla, O., C. DoNascimiento & C. J. Rodríguez. 2007. Two new species of the enigmatic genus Stenophareus (Opiliones: Laniatores: Stygnidae) from the Venezuelan Guiana Shield. Zootaxa 1471: 43–51.

Last updated: 13 March 2022.