Phylogeny of the scorpion genus Brachistosternus (Scorpiones, Bothriuridae)

ANDRES ALEJANDRO OJANGUREN AFFILASTRO

San Pablo, Brasil

Congreso; 17th International Congress of Arachnology; 2007

17th International Congress of Arachnology

The scorpion genus Brachistosternus contains 36 described species, as well as several undescribed entities, being the most specious genus of family Bothriuridae. In 1973 Maury divided the genus into 3 different subgenera; however, he based his division only in a few characters, (specially in the trichobothrial pattern), ignoring morphological structures that have recently revealed to have systematics importance. In recent years several phylogenetic studies on family Bothriuridae were performed by Prendini (2000, 2003) and Soleglad & Fet (2003), clearly establishing the position of the genus in the family as well as its relationships with the other genera. However until now none of these contributions could reveal the relationships between the species of the genus nor the validity of the subgenerical division established by Maury in 1973. In this study we have performed a phylogeny of all valid species of genus Brachistosternus, together with some undescribed entities from northern Chile and the Andes. We have used 116 morphological characters, including most of those used by Prendini (2003) in his Phylogeny of family Bothriuridae. Our results show that Maury’s subgenerical division was only partially correct. We also demonstrate that the Andes mountains chain has not been an effective barrier for the different groups of species of the genus, as was stated by Ochoa (2004).