Stinging creature found waiting to attack prey in Mexico. It’s a new species
In a forest of western Mexico, a stinging creature tucked itself into an “abandoned” burrow and waited for some unsuspecting prey to come along. Its eight eyes scanned the landscape, but it wasn’t the only one searching.
Visiting scientists found the lurking animal — and discovered a new species.
A team of researchers decided to survey the arachnid diversity at Estación de Biología Chamela, “one of the largest areas devoted to the preservation and study of tropical dry forest biodiversity on the central Pacific coast,” André Felipe de Araujo Lira and Edmundo González-Santillán wrote in a study published June 27 in the peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys.
Researchers suspected the area had some diverse scorpions so they conducted nighttime surveys using ultraviolet lights and combed the archives for previously collected specimens, the study said. In total, they tracked down dozens of scorpion specimens.
A few of the scorpions caught their attention. These animals didn’t quite match any known species, the study said. The team took a closer look and soon realized it had discovered a new species: Mesomexovis caxcan, or the Caxcan scorpion.
Caxcan scorpions have bumpy, hairy bodies that can reach just over 2 inches long, researchers said. They have eight eyes, pincers and a stinger.
Photos show the orange-brown coloring of the new species. Its back has several black markings, and its stinger is reddish-orange.
Caxcan scorpions were found under rocks, stones and rotten logs in a forest, the study said. Some females were found “using abandoned burrows” to sit and wait for prey to attack. Males were more active “during the rainy season and thus are easily spotted during the night using ultraviolet detection.”
Researchers said they named the new species after the Caxcan, “one of the original nomadic groups of Chichimeca peoples that occupied the arid land of northern Mexico.”
So far, Caxcan scorpions have been found at several sites in the neighboring states of Jalisco and Colima along Mexico’s Pacific coast, the study said.
The new species was identified by its DNA, size, body proportions, texture, coloring and other subtle physical features, the study said.