Scorpians ‹‹ Go Back
These are predatory arachnids having eight legs, a pair of grasping pedipalps and a characteristic segmented tail often carried in a forward curve over the back ending with a venomous stinger. These interesting animals are found in all the continents except Antarctica. About 1750 species have been described so far belonging to 13 families. Only 25 of these species are known to carry venom capable enough to cause a human fatality.
Eighteen species of Scorpions belonging to 3 families are found in Sri Lanka of which 14 are endemic.
• Family - Buthidae is represented by 13 species (11 endemic)
• Family - Chaerilidae is represented by 1 species (1 endemic)
• Family - Scorpionidae is represented by 4 species (2 endemic)
The Indian Red Scorpion Hottentota tamulas, (believed to have been introduced to the country in the late eighties with the Indian Peace Keeping Force) carry enough venom to cause human death. This species belong to the Buthidae family and so far is only found in the Jaffna peninsula.
The Giant Forest Scorpion Heterometrus swammerdami which belong to the Scorpionidae family and which grows to a length of 9 inches is the largest Scorpion species in the world.
References
• Euscorpius Occasional Publications in Scorpiology. 2016, No. 220 Scorpions of Sri Lanka (Scorpiones: Buthidae, Chaerilidae, Scorpionidae) with description of four new species of the genera Charmus Karsch, 1879 and Reddyanus Vachon, 1972, stat. n.
Frantiek Kovak 1, 4, Graeme Lowe 2, Kithsiri B. Ranawana 3, David Hoferek 1, V. A. Sanjeewa Jayarathne 3, Jana Plkov 4 & Frantiek hlavsk. 4
1 P.O. Box 27, CZ-145 01 Praha 45, Czech Republic, www.scorpio.cz
2 Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308, USA
3 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
4 Department of Zoology, Charles University, Vinin¡ 7, CZ-128 44 Praha 2,
Czech Republic
http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DD0DF45D-F63A-4AA2-8EFF-03CF99E297EF
• Presentation by Professor Sam Kularatne
