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Phylogeny of Parabuthus (Scorpiones, Buthidae)
Author(s) -
Prendini Lorenzo
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
zoologica scripta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.204
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1463-6409
pISSN - 0300-3256
DOI - 10.1046/j.1463-6409.2001.00056.x
Subject(s) - buthidae , monophyly , biology , cladogram , cladistics , zoology , biogeography , evolutionary biology , genus , scorpion , ecology , phylogenetics , clade , biochemistry , venom , gene
A cladistic analysis of the 20 southern African species of Parabuthus Pocock, 1 890 (Scorpiones, Buthidae) and five of the eight north‐eastern African and Arabian species is presented, based on 53 characters, mostly of the adult morphology. The resultant topology is largely congruent with Lamoral’s (1978) unpublished topology for 14 Namibian species. Monophyly of the genus Parabuthus is supported, but monophyly of the disjunct southern African vs. north‐eastern African and Arabian species is unsupported. The implications of the cladogram for understanding ecological specialization in Parabuthus , Afrotropical arid biogeography and Parabuthus envenomation are discussed.