Leiurus kuwaiti Lourenço, 2020

Alshammari, Maram M., Afifeh, Bassam Abu, Al-Quraan, Nisreen, Abuharfil, Nizar M. & Amr, Zuhair S., 2024, Scorpions of the State of Kuwait, Ecologica Montenegrina 75, pp. 52-66 : 63-66

Leiurus kuwaiti Lourenço, 2020

Previous records: Leiurus kuwaiti : 1 ♀, Al-Abraq – Al-Khabari farms (Al-Jahra Province), Kuwait, 29°22'05.9"N 46°57'39.6"E ( Lourenço, 2020) .

Remarks: During the study the endemic species Leiurus kuwaiti Lourenço, 2020 was not recorded despite all effort.

Discussion

According to Kinzelbach (1985), El-Hennawy (1992), and Fet et al. (2000), the scorpions of Kuwait belong to Family Buthidae : Androctonus , Buthacus , Compsobuthus , Leiurus , Orthochirus and Family Scorpionidae : Scorpio . Only three species; Apistobuthus susanae , Androctonus crassicauda and Compsobuthus pallidus were documented based on actual field work. Despite all field effort, and security constraints, some areas were not surveyed. The endemic species Leiurus kuwaiti Lourenço, 2020 was not recorded during the study.

Apparently, the scorpion fauna of Kuwait is very limited compared to adjacent countries. A total of 20 species of scorpions were recorded from Iraq ( Kachel et al., 2021), with only one species, Androctonus crassicauda , shared with Kuwait. The scorpion fauna of Saudi Arabia consists of 35 species ( Alqahtani et al., 2019), and shares only two species with Kuwait, Androctonus crassicauda and Compsobuthus pallidus . Iran hosts the highest number of species reaching 68 species ( Dehghani & Kassiri, 2018; Barahoei et al., 2020), sharing both Apistobuthus susanae and Androctonus crassicauda . This may be attributed to limited habitats suitable for the diversity of scorpions. Most of the country is flat with elevation ranging from 0-400 m a.s.l.

The status of Apistobuthus pterygocercus in Kuwait was revised, and examination of the collected materials confirm that it is indeed Apistobuthus susanae , based on comparison with the former species. This species was found to be associated with elevated sand hills in Al- Huwaymiliyah, Subiya and Al-Abdali. By no means the study of Kettel (1982) was available. This publication was not found at any university library or elsewhere, however, we concluded records of Androctonus crassicauda , Apistobuthus pterygocerus and Compsobuthus arabicus (= Compsobuthus pallidus ).

The status of Buthacus leptochelys (Ehrenberg, 1829) reported from Kuwait by Kovařík (2005) was not confirmed. Recent revision of the genus Buthacus in North Africa and the Middle East showed that distribution range of this species is confined to Egypt, Sudan, and perhaps Libya ( Cain et al., 2021). If further specimens of this genus are collected, they may represent a new species, or it may belongs to Buthacus nigroaculeatus group or Buthacus macrocentrus . Buthacus macrocentrus was synonymized with B. leptochelys by Cain et al. (2021).

Al-Khalifa et al. (2012) mentioned two species of scorpions from Al-Wafra, Androctonus crassicauda and Uroplectes alstoni Purcell, 1901 (= Uroplectes carinatus Pocock, 1890 ). However, their record of the lesser yellow scorpion, Uroplectes carinatus , is doubtful.

Suspected species that may occur in Kuwait includes Scorpio palmatus . This species was recorded from Al Hudud al Shamaliya Province in Saudi Arabia close to the Kuwaiti borders ( Alqahtani & Badry, 2021). Examining the map given by Kachel et al. (2021) for the distribution of Iraqi scorpions, two species that have been recorded from the extreme south in Basra Province of Iraq includes Orthochirus mesopotamicus and Mesobuthus mesopotamicus ( Kovařík et al., 2022; Yağmur et al., 2024).

The status of Androctonus crassicauda in Kuwait deserves a closer examination. Alqahtani et al. (2022) showed that the populations of this species in Saudi Arabia have several distinct forms, and those from the North Arabian Desert are distinct from those of the Central Arabian Desert and other population in the south and western Saudi Arabia, suggesting the existence of different species within the A. crassicauda complex. The Kuwaiti Androctonus populations should be compared with A. sumericus .

Further studies on the distribution, ecology and systematics of the scorpions of Kuwait should receive high priority. A later stage of should focus on the molecular aspects and phylogenetic affinities of the scorpions of Kuwait in comparison to those in the surrounding countries.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Deanship of Academic Research, Jordan University of Science & Technology (2022/625). Our thanks are due to Dr. Abdul Hadi Aloufi for the comparative material from Saudi Arabia and Mrs. Laya Majed (RSCN) for map preparation. We thank the reviewers for their comments that enhanced the manuscript.

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