New species discovered in Malaysian rainforest during unprecedented, top-to-bottom survey

Date:  December 6, 2017

Source:  California Academy of Sciences

Summary:

This fall, the California Academy of Sciences partnered with The Habitat Penang Hill and colleagues to conduct a rainforest survey on Malaysia's island state of Penang. A 117-member team documented flora and fauna from the tops of trees to the dark reaches of caves and discovered several species previously unknown to science living just miles from a major metropolis. Survey results will contribute to this ancient rainforest's nomination as a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Over the course of two weeks the international team discovered several species previously unknown to science -- including a new species of scorpion and likely new species of fly, water bear, and bacterium -- living just miles from a major metropolis. The expedition also tallied new regional sightings: birds, bats, orchids, mammals, flies, ants, mosquitoes, spiders, and frogs never known to occur in Penang were documented for the first time. Survey results (which included the canopy and not just the forest floor) will advance the understanding of this little-explored rainforest and contribute to its future nomination as a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) biosphere reserve. 

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A new scorpion from California reveals hidden biodiversity in the Golden State

Date:April 27, 2016

Source:Pensoft Publishers

Recent fieldwork has uncovered a new species of scorpion in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in northeastern California. It is related to several species in its genus, and is only the fourth new species of scorpion to be described from California in the past twenty years.

California is known for its high biological diversity. The state encompasses a wide variety of habitats, from temperate coastal scrub and cool redwood forests to high-elevation conifer forests and grasslands that are home to an equally diverse variety of plants and animals. Biologists have been intensively studying and characterizing the biodiversity of California for centuries.

Recent fieldwork by researchers Warren Savary and Rob Bryson uncovered a new species of scorpion in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in northeastern California. It is related to several species in the genus Pseudouroctonus, and is only the fourth new species of scorpion to be described from California in the past twenty years. The description is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The lead author, Warren Savary, is a field associate of the California Academy of Sciences and has been studying the scorpion diversity of California since the 1970s. He and a collaborator described a new species endemic to the White and Inyo Mountains in eastern California in 1991.

"California is home to a remarkable variety of scorpions," says Savary. "However, the more I study them, the more I realize that we've only just scratched the surface. A lot of scorpion diversity remains to be described." He and co-author Rob Bryson, a researcher at the University of Washington, have started using DNA to help better understand scorpion diversity.

Read on ...

Ancient Scorpion Had Feet, May Have Walked Out of Ocean

by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | January 14, 2015 06:58am ET

A new scorpion species found fossilized in the rocks of a backyard could turn the scientific understanding of these stinging creatures on its head.

The fossils suggest that ancient scorpions crawled out of the seas and onto land earlier than thought, according to the researchers who analyzed them. In fact, some of the oldest scorpions had the equipment needed to walk out of their watery habitats and onto land, the researchers said. The fossils date back some 430 million to 433 million years, which makes them only slightly younger than the oldest known scorpions, which lived between 433 million and 438 million years ago.

The new species "is really important, because the combination of its features don't appear in any other known scorpion," said study leader Janet Waddington, an assistant curator of paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

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Ancient spider-like arachnid revealed in x-rays

A 305-million-year-old harvestman fossil, ancestor of modern day arachnids, is more closely relates to the scorpion than spiders. Scientists discovered unusual features: it has 2 sets of eyes on the center and lateral sides of the body.

Credit: University of Manchester and American Museum of Natural History

Oldest Land-Living Animal from Gondwana Found

Sep. 3, 2013 — A postdoctoral fellow from Wits University has discovered the oldest known land-living animal from Gondwana in a remote part of the Eastern Cape. Dr Robert Gess, from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits, discovered the 350-million-year-old fossilised scorpion from rocks of the Devonian Witteberg Group near Grahamstown. This unique specimen, which is a new species, has been calledGondwanascorpio emzantsiensis.

His discovery has been published in the peer reviewed journal African Invertebrate.

Explaining his discovery, Gess said that early life was confined to the sea and the process of terrestrialisation -- the movement of life onto land -- began during the Silurian Period roughly 420 million years ago. The first wave of life to move out from water onto land consisted of plants, which gradually increased in size and complexity throughout the Devonian Period.

This initial colonisation of land was closely followed by plant and debris-eating invertebrate animals such as primitive insects and millipedes. By the end of the Silurian period about 416 million years ago, predatory invertebrates such as scorpions and spiders were feeding on the earlier colonists of land

Read on

Wakey wakey! Tropical scorpion gives Scottish student an early morning fright

Getting bleary-eyed students out of bed in the morning can be notoriously difficult.

That wasn’t the case for zoology student Vicky Raitt, however, when she opened her eyes to find a tropical scorpion just inches from her face.

Perhaps even more surprising, was that the incident happened in her student digs in Aberdeen, clearly an emerging destination for exotic creatures on holiday.

Residents in the Scottish city can sleep safe however, with the arachnid likely to have climbed into the 23-year-old’s bag as she returned home from a trip to Borneo.

‘I opened my eyes and the scorpion was literally a hand’s length away from my face with its tail raised,’ she explained.

‘I jumped out of bed and, after doing a double take to make sure I hadn’t imagined it, I ran to the kitchen to get a plastic tub to put it in.

‘I’d been back for five days before I found the scorpion so it must have been living with me all that time.’

The scorpion is now in the care of the Scottish SPCA’s Aberdeenshire rescue centre in Drumoak.

‘Once I got over the initial shock of finding it I was okay,’ she added. ‘But it’s still quite scary to think what could have happened if I hadn’t woke up and it had stung me.’

Asian forest scorpions are not deadly but can cause intense inflammation and sickness with their sting.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/26/wakey-wakey-tropical-scorpion-gives-scottish-student-an-early-morning-fright-3857323/

New Cave-Dwelling Scorpion Species Discovered

Two new species of short-tailed whip scorpions have been found living deep inside the cool, humid caves of northeastern Brazil, a study reports.

Whip scorpions are not true scorpions, but rather part of a group of arachnids that don't have stings and are not poisonous. They possess a whip-like tail, but look more like ants.

Previously, scientists thought whip scorpions came predominantly from the Caribbean. The new species, Rowlandius ubajara and Rowlandius potiguara, are some of the first from South America.
The newly discovered creatures are the same size and same reddish-brown color as other whip scorpions. "You can only tell the species apart by looking at their genitals," said lead study author Adalberto Santos, an arachnologist from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.

Twenty-five living specimens of R. potiguar were found in 20 caves of the Apodi Limestone Group in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. Males of this species vary widely in the length of their second pair of legs, known as "pedipalps," which are used for mating and fighting. This variation might reflect different strategies used by males of different sizes, Santos said. Bigger males with larger pedipalps might fight rival males for females, whereas smaller males may avoid fighting altogether and simply try to mate with females when bigger males aren't around.

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New scorpion species found near city of Tucson in USA

6 new species found in Arizona since 2006

March 2013. A new species of scorpion, named Vaejovis brysoni, has been found in the Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona. Another scorpion of the same group also inhabits this mountain range, making this the first documented case of two vorhiesi group species distributed on the same mountain.

These mountains overlook the city of Tucson, Arizona. Amazingly, in the 21st century, there are still new species to be discovered right here in the United States. What is even more surprising is that the new species was found within sight of a large metropolitan area.

Recently Dr. Rob Bryson Jr. discovered this new species while looking for a completely different animal. Many important discoveries are made this way by scientists who start out working on something completely different. He sent specimens to the authors, who determined that they were indeed a new scorpion species. At that point, the team was assembled and the rest is history.

6 new species found in Arizona since 2006
For more than 50 years only four species of mountain scorpions were known from the state of Arizona. That number has more than doubled over the past six years, with a total of 10 species now known, all belonging to the same group. Arizona is known for isolated mountain habitats in the desert known as Sky Islands. These Sky Islands are where the new species are being discovered.

"This latest new scorpion is a prime example of the amazing diversity of life still to be discovered, right here in 21st century America" adds Richard F. Ayrey, one of the co-author of the original article.

The study was published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal Zookeys.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/tuscon-scorpion.html

Scorpion stings passenger on Iberia flight

A scorpion stung a passenger on a flight from Costa Rica to Spain, which forced the sealing of the Iberia airlines Airbus 340 at Madrid's Barajas International Airport, aviation sources told Efe Monday.

The incident took place last Thursday aboard Flight 6316 from San Jose to Madrid.

The pilot told the Barajas control tower that a scorpion had stung a passenger; the airport's medical service was subsequently notified, the sources said.

Upon the airliner's arrival at Madrid, Barajas doctors confirmed the arachnid sting on the passenger's left arm, for which they took her to a hospital in the Spanish capital.

The woman of Swiss nationality remained under observation until she was released the next day.

The passenger was on a flight from San Jose to Madrid with another five people, who had planned to continue their trip to Zurich.

One member of the group remained in Madrid to accompany the passenger during her hospitalization, while the other four continued on to the Swiss city as planned.

The Iberia plane had to be sealed off, according to the regulations for such cases, in order to find the scorpion and disinfect the aircraft. EFE

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/11/26/scorpion-stings-passenger-on-iberia-flight/#ixzz2Du6zjsbC

UNLV students discover new scorpion species

Two UNLV researchers have provided more evidence that we human beings have a lot to learn about what's going on out there.

Graduate students Michael Webber and Matt Graham have discovered, documented and reported on a new species of scorpion, found in Death Valley National Park.

"I think people don't appreciate how often new species are discovered," Graham said. "What's really neat about this one is it was an especially rare genus."

Graham, 32, and Webber, 27, are doctoral students in biology. They both study scorpions.

There are almost 2,000 different species of scorpions already known. They can be smaller than a staple or bigger than the screen on an iPad.

Wernerius inyoensis measures 16.4 mm, about two-thirds of an inch. It could sit on top of a dime and have room to spare.

The scorpion Graham found is the only one ever documented, despite the fact that he found it in a national park, one of the more heavily studied wilderness areas.

They wrote about their findings in the scientific journal ZooKeys in March.

It all started in late 2008 and early 2009, when Graham was part of a team working for the National Park Service. He'd come to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from West Virginia specifically so he could be in the middle of scorpion country.

He's one of those guys who had all kinds of critters in his house as a young man.

So the park service had this inventory project going in Death Valley. It's hard to manage a geographic area if you don't know what's out there to manage, so they wanted a basic count on the critters in the park.

You can't tell if environmental changes are killing off certain species, for example, if you don't have at least a rough idea of how many you started with.

Continued:  http://www.lvrj.com/news/unlv-students-discover-new-scorpion-species-151285715.html