University researchers discover new species of scorpion in south of Spain

Buthus gonzalezdelavegai lives in sandy areas and dunes and is the ninth unpublished type of arachnid to be found in the region since 2004, bringing to 18 the number of scorpion species native to the country

Guillermo Ortega

Granada

Tuesday, 23 July 2024, 16:39

It has been discovered by a researcher from the University of Granada (UGR) and was located in the surroundings of the Doñana National Park in Huelva, so it can be said that Buthus gonzalezdelavegai, which is the name of the new species of scorpion that has been discovered, is Andalusian through and through.

The discovery was made possible thanks to biologist and former UGR professor Antonio Luis González Moliné and the Cuban arachnologist Luis de Armas, curator of arachnids at the Institute of Ecology and Systematic in Cuba. The former is a retired professor and has spent more than thirty years studying the arachnids of Huelva province. The latter has been doing similar for 50 years and has published 200 articles in specialised journals. The collaboration between the two experts has been essential.

The researchers pointed out that scorpions are organisms that have survived since the Silurian period (443.8 to 419.1 million years ago, the start of terrestrial life, including predatory arachnids such as scorpions) and that 1,251 species have been identified and recorded to date worldwide. They pointed out that, since the description of Buthus ibéricus in 2004 by another Cuban specialist, Rolando Teruel, 16 new species of this genus have been identified in Spain, nine of them in Andalucía.

Buthus gonzalezdelavegai lives in very specific sandy areas and dunes along the coast of Huelva. Instead of choosing a name that takes part of their own names for the glory of this shared discovery, the two experts have paid a rather emotional tribute to the Huelva naturalist Pablo González de la Vega. It is the surname of this fellow scientist and researcher involved in the study of amphibians and reptiles in the Andalusian region that is assigned to this new species of predatory arachnid, one of a new total of 18 scorpion species native to Spain.

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