Review of the genus Babycurus Karsch, 1886 (Arachnida, Scorpiones, Buthidae), with descriptions of Barbaracurus gen. n. and two new species from Oman and Yemen
Abstract
The genus Babycurus Karsch, 1886 sensu lato is split into two genera, a strictly African genus Babycurus, and the new genus Barbaracurus gen. n., which mainly includes species from the Horn of Africa and Arabian Peninsula. Two new species Barbaracurus winklerorum sp. n. from Oman and B. yemenensis sp. n. from Yemen are described, compared with other species, and fully illustrated with color photos of morphology, habitus, live specimens and collection localities.
Males of Barbaracurus somalicus (Hirst, 1907) comb. n. and Barbaracurus zambonellii (Borelli, 1902) comb. n. are recorded for the first time and fully illustrated. Babycurus ornatus Werner, 1936 from Mozambique is shown to be a junior synonym of Lychas burdoi (Simon, 1882), a species from the same area.
Babycurus brignolii Lourenço et Rossi, 2017 is designated to be a nomen dubium. Hemispermatophores are des-cribed and illustrated to show their differences between the species and genera.
Analyses of karyotypes reveal a similar degree of interspecific variability of diploid chromosomal numbers within the genera Babycurus (2n=16-30) and Barbaracurus gen. n. (2n=22-36).