Abstract
The fauna and zoogeography of scorpions in Bulgaria have not been well researched. At least four species are recorded currently for this country: the Balkan–Anatolian Mesobuthus gibbosus (Buthidae), known only from Pirin Mts., and several taxa of the genus Euscorpius Thorell (Euscorpiidae). The Balkan species E. hadzii inhabits the southwest of Bulgaria, and an undetermined species of the Balkan–Anatolian ‘‘Euscorpius mingrelicus’’ complex is known only from Pirin Mts. Remaining Bulgarian populations of Euscorpius, widely ranging from north to south (mainly in the mountain areas, up to 1850 m a.s.l.), belong to ‘‘Euscorpius carpathicus’’ complex. Their true taxonomic identity is not yet known, but these populations are not homogeneous. A clearly separated cluster of Rhodope populations could represent a different taxon from the Stara Planina ( = Balkan) ones (mainly known from the Western Stara Planina) and those from the southwest of Bulgaria. Taxonomic affinities of Bulgarian scorpion taxa are discussed, as well as their geographic and altitudinal distribution
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Byalynitsky-Birula, A.A., 1917. [Arachnoidea Arthrogastra Caucasica. Pars I. Scorpiones]. Zapiski Kazvazskogo Muzeya (Mémoires du Musée du Caucase) (Tiflis) A(5) (in Russian). English translation: 1964. Arthrogastric Arachnids of Caucasia. 1. Scorpions. Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations.
Bonacina, A., 1980. Sistematica specifica e sottospecifica del complesso ‘‘Euscorpius germanus’’ (Scorpiones, Chactidae). Rivista del Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali ‘‘Enrico Caffi’’ (Bergamo) 2:47–100.
Caporiacco, L. di., 1950. Le specie e sottospecie del genere ‘‘Euscorpius’’ viventi in Italia ed in alcune zone confinanti. Memorie. Accademia nazionale dei Lincei (ser. 8) 2:159–230.
Crucitti, P., 1993. Distribution and diversity of Italian scorpions. Redia 76(2):281–300.
Ćurčić, B.P.M., 1972. Considerations upon the geographic distribution and origin of some populations in the genus Euscorpius Thorell (Chactidae, Scorpiones). Rapport de la Commission International de la Mer Méditerranée (Monaco) 21(3):83–88.
Fet, V., 1986. Notes on some Euscorpius (Scorpiones: Chactidae) from Greece and Turkey. Rivista del Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali ‘‘Enrico Caffi’’ (Bergamo) 9 [1985]:3–11.
Fet, V., 1993. Notes on Euscorpius mingrelicus (Kessler, 1874) from the Caucasus. Rivista del Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali ‘‘Enrico Caffi’’ (Bergamo) 16:1–8.
Fet, V., 2000. Scorpions (Arachnida, Scorpiones) from the Balkan Peninsula in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia. Historia naturalis bulgarica 11:47–60.
Fet, V., 2003. The Crimean scorpion, Euscorpius tauricus (C.L. Koch, 1837) (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae): an endemic species supported by mitochondrial DNA evidence. Arthropoda Selecta (Moscow) 11(4):271–276.
Fet, V. & M.E. Braunwalder, 2000. The scorpions (Arachnida, Scorpiones) of the Aegean area: current problems in taxonomy and biogeography. Belgian Journal of Zoology 130(Suppl. 1):17–22.
Fet, V., B.E. Hendrixson, W.D. Sissom & G. Levy, 2000. First record for the genus Mesobuthus Vachon, 1950 in Israel: Mesobuthus nigrocinctus (Ehrenberg, 1828), comb. n. (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Mt. Hermon. Israel Journal of Zoology 46:287–295.
Fet, V., Ay. Karataş, E.V. Fet & A. Karataş, 2003a. [First data on the molecular phylogeny of Euscorpius (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae) from Turkey]. Zoologicheskiy zhurnal [Zoological Journal] 82(12):1518–1521 (in Russian); English translation (2003): Entomological Review 83 (Suppl. 2): 249–252.
Fet, V., M. Kuntner & B. Sket, 2001. Scorpions of Slovenia: a faunistic and biogeographical survey. In Fet, V. & P.A. Selden (eds), Scorpions 2001. In Memoriam Gary A. Polis. British Arachnological Society, Burnham Beeches, Bucks: 255–256.
Fet, V. & G. Lowe, 2000. Family Buthidae. In Fet, V., Sissom, W.D., Lowe, G. and Braunwalder, M.E. Catalog of the Scorpions of the World (1758–1998). New York Entomological Society, New York: 54–286.
Fet, V. & W.D. Sissom, 2000. Family Euscorpiidae. In: Fet, V., Sissom, W.D., Lowe, G. and Braunwalder, M.E. Catalog of the Scorpions of the World (1758–1998). New York Entomological Society, New York: 355–381.
Fet, V. & M.E. Soleglad, 2002. Morphology analysis supports presence of more than one species in the ‘‘ Euscorpius carpathicus’’ complex (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae). Euscorpius 3:1–51.
Fet, V., M.E. Soleglad & B. Gantenbein, 2004. The Euroscorpion: genus Euscorpius (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae). Proceedings of the 3d Scorpiology Symposium, American Arachnological Society 28th Annual Meeting, Norman, Oklahoma, 23–27 June 2004. Euscorpius 17:47–59.
Fet, V., M.E. Soleglad, B. Gantenbein, V. Vignoli, N. Salomone, E.V. Fet & P.J. Schembri, 2003b. New molecular and morphological data on the ‘‘Euscorpius carpathicus’’ species complex (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae) from Italy, Malta, and Greece justify the elevation of E. c. sicanus (C.L. Koch, 1837) to the species level. Revue suisse de Zoologie 110(2):355–379.
Gantenbein, B., V. Fet, M. Barker & A. Scholl, 2000a. Nuclear and mitochondrial markers reveal the existence of two parapatric scorpion species in the Alps: Euscorpius germanus (C.L. Koch, 1837) and E. alpha Caporiacco, 1950, stat. nov. (Scorpiones, Euscorpiidae). Revue suisse de Zoologie 107(4): 843–869.
Gantenbein, B., V. Fet & A.V. Gromov, 2003. The first DNA phylogeny of four species of Mesobuthus Vachon, 1950 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Eurasia. Journal of Arachnology 31(3):412–420.
Gantenbein, B., V. Fet, C.R. Largiadèr & A. Scholl, 1999. First DNA phylogeny of Euscorpius Thorell, 1876 (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae) and its bearing on taxonomy and biogeography of this genus. Biogeographica (Paris) 75(2):49–65.
Gantenbein, B., C. Kropf, C.R. Largiadèr & A. Scholl, 2000b. Molecular and morphological evidence for the presence of a new buthid taxon (Scorpiones: Buthidae) on the Island of Cyprus. Revue suisse de Zoologie 107:213–232.
Gantenbein, B., M.E. Soleglad & V. Fet, 2001. Euscorpius balearicus Caporiacco, 1950, stat. nov. (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae): molecular (allozymes and mtDNA) and morphological evidence for an endemic Balearic Islands species. Organisms, Diversity and Evolution 1(4):301–320.
Hadži, J., 1930. Die europäischen Skorpione des Polnischen Zoologischen Staatsmuseums in Warszawa. Annales Musei Zoologici Polonici 9(4):29–38.
Hadži, J., 1931. Der Artbildungsprozess in der Gattung Euscorpius Thor. Archivio Zoologico Italiano 16(1–2):356–362 (IX Congrès international de zoologie).
Jurinich, S., 1905. [The genus Euscorpius in Bulgaria]. Periodichesko spisanie na Balgarskoto knizhovno druzhestvo v Sofiya [Periodical Journal of the Bulgarian Literary Society in Sofia] 65(1–2):134–140 (in Bulgarian).
Kinzelbach, R., 1975. Die Skorpione der Ägäis. Beiträge zur Systematik, Phylogenie und Biogeographie. Zoologische Jahrbücher, Abteilung für Systematik 102(1):12–50.
Komposch, C., B. Scherabon & V. Fet, 2001. Scorpions of Austria. In Fet, V. & P.A. Selden (eds.), Scorpions 2001. In Memoriam Gary A. Polis. British Arachnological Society, Burnham Beeches, Bucks: 267–272.
Kovařìk, F., 1998. Štiřì [Scorpions]. Madagaskar, Jihlava.
Kovařìk, F., 1999. Revision of European scorpions, with a key to species. Serket 6(2):38–44.
Scherabon, B., 1987. Die Skorpione Österreichs in vergleichender Sicht unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Kärntens. Carinthia II./Naturwiss. Beiträge zur Heimatkunde Kärntens/Mitteilungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins für Kärnten 45:78–158.
Scherabon, B., B. Gantenbein, V. Fet, M. Barker, M. Kuntner, C. Kropf & D. Huber, 2000. A new species of scorpion from Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia: Euscorpius gamma Caporiacco, 1950, stat. nov. (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae). In Gajdoš, P. & S. Pekàr (eds), Proceedings of the 18th European Colloquium of Arachnology, Starà Lesnà, 1999. Ekològia (Bratislava) 19(Suppl. 3): 253–262.
Teruel, R., V. Fet, V. & L.F. de Armas, 2004. A note on the scorpions from the Pirin Mountains, southwestern Bulgaria (Scorpiones: Buthidae, Euscorpiidae). Euscorpius 14:1–11.
Vachon, M., 1975. Recherches sur les Scorpions appartenant ou déposés au Muséum d’Histoire naturalle de Genève. I. Contribution á une meilleure connaissance des espéces et des sous-espèces de Scorpions du genre ‘‘Euscorpius’’ Thorell, 1876 (Fam. des Chactidae). Revue suisse de Zoologie 82(3):629–645.
Vachon, M. & M. Jaques, 1977. Recherches sur les Scorpions appartenant ou déposés au Muséum d’Histoire naturelle de Genève. 2. Contribution á la connaissance de l’ancienne espèce Scorpius banaticus C.L. Koch 1841, actuellement considérée comme synonyme de Euscorpius carpathicus (Linné 1767) (Fam. des Chactidae). Revue suisse de Zoologie 84(2):409–436.
Valle, A., 1975. Considerazioni intorno alle sottospecie di Euscorpius carpathicus (L.) (Scorpiones, Chactidae). L’Ateneo Parmense, Acta Naturalia 11(1):209–234.
Vignoli, V., N. Salomone, T. Caruso & F. Bernini, 2005. The Euscorpius tergestinus (C.L.Koch, 1837) complex in Italy: biometrics of sympatric hidden species (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae). Zoologischer Anzeiger 244(2):97–114.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fet, V., Soleglad, M.E. (2007). Fauna and Zoogeography of Scorpions (Arachnida: Scorpiones) in Bulgaria. In: Fet, V., Popov, A. (eds) Biogeography and Ecology of Bulgaria. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 82. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5781-6_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5781-6_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4417-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-5781-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)