The Scorpions of Petite Terre, Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles, with description of a new species of Oiclus Simon, 1880 (Scorpiones, Buthidae, Diplocentridae)

Abstract

The scorpion fauna of Petite Terre, in the Guadeloupe archipelago, Lesser Antilles, is studied for the first time, based on material recently collected during an entomological inventory. Two species are discovered here, Centruroides pococki Sissom & Francke, 1983 (family Buthidae C. L. Koch, 1837; also recorded from several other islands in the Lesser Antilles) and a new species of the genus Oiclus Simon, 1880 (family Diplocentridae Karsch, 1880), O. tite n. sp., described in this work and possibly endemic to Petite Terre. This new taxon raises to seven the number of described Oiclus species (one of them being polytypic) and confirms again that this genus endemic to the Lesser Antilles is more diverse than originally suspected. The number of known Oiclus species occurring in the Guadeloupe archipelago is increased to five; a map of their geographical distribution is presented and a key for their identification is provided.