Two new species of buthid scorpion of the genus Janalychas Kovarik, 2019 (Arachnida: Scorpiones: Buthidae) from the Western Ghats, India

摘要

The buthid scorpion Janalychas tricarinatus Simon, 1884 is a species distributed in most parts of the Indian peninsula. I assessed morphological and molecular data for representatives of this species from peninsular India, which hints at the presenceof multiple species within the broadly distributed J. tricarinatus sensu lato. Conjugation of morphological and molecular data allow me to describe two new species of the genus Janalychas that were, until now, considered conspecific with J. tricarinatus.Re-examination of the type specimens of Lychas aareyensis Mirza & Sanap, 2010 revealed the lack of a tibial spur, a character of the genus Reddyanus Vachon, 1972 and not Lychas Koch, 1845 or Janalychas Kovarik, 2019, which leads me to transfer the species to the genus Reddyanus (Reddyanus aareyensis (Mirza & Sanap, 2010) comb. nov. as db is situated between et and est on the pedipalp manus. Discovery of two new species highlights the need for employing integrated taxonomic approaches to define and delimit species.