Chaerilidae Pocock, 1893

Soleglad, Michael E. & Fet, Victor, 2003, High-level systematics and phylogeny of the extant scorpions (Scorpiones: Orthosterni), Euscorpius 2003 (11), pp. 1-175 : 92

Family Chaerilidae Pocock, 1893

Type Genus. Chaerilus Simon, 1877 .

Composition. This monotypic family includes a single genus, Chaerilus (Fet, 2000a; Kovařík, 2000b)

Distribution. South and Southeast Asia.

Taxonomic history. This taxon was established early by Pocock (1893) as a subfamily of Chactidae , and first elevated to the family rank by Kraepelin (1899). Interestingly, Laurie (1896b) placed it as a subfamily under Buthidae , and cladistic analysis of Stockwell (1989) also showed that Chaerilidae are a sister group of Buthidae . Some authors considered Chaerilus to be related to the genus Calchas (now in Iuridae ) (Birula, 1917a, 1917b; Werner, 1934). The rank and placement of this taxon remained ambiguous until Vachon (1956, 1963, 1971) demonstrated a very distinct cheliceral dentition and trichobothrial pattern for the genus Chaerilus . The work of Vachon (1974) firmly reestablished Chaerilidae as a separate family with the unique trichobothrial “ Type B”. Stockwell (1989) placed Chaerilidae in his superfamily Buthoidea together with Buthidae . A revision of Chaerilidae was published by Kovařík (2000b).

Biogeographic history. Unclear. Modern species of Chaerilus are limited to tropical areas of South And Southeast Asia, although they reach considerable altitudes in Kashmir, Nepal, and Tibet (Kovařík, 2000b), which indicates their ecological plasticity and tolerance of cold climate. Lamoral (1980) suggested that Chaerilidae originated in Pangaen times as an eastern Laurasian relict, and then moved into the Oriental region after the Indian plate connected with Eurasia; and then became isolated in the Oriental region as the Himalayas formed. This is only a plausible speculation based exclusively on modern distribution of Chaerilus . Lourenço (1996a, 1996d) noted that their Laurasian origin would explain absence of Chaerilidae in Madagascar.