ARTÍCULO: FURTHER MORPHOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE GENUS BIRULATUS VACHON (SCORPIONES, BUTHIDAE), WITH THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES FROM ISRAEL

Birulatus Vachon, 1974 remains one of the most enigmatic buthid genera ever described. At the time of its description, Vachon (1974) did not express any precise opinion about the phylogenetic position of the new genus. A more recent analysis (Lourenço, 1999) suggested that Birulatus might to some extent be associated with genera such as Compsobuthus Vachon, Cicileus Vachon and Buthiscus Birula, but it undoubtedly represented an older lineage. This would place Birulatus in a more isolated phylogenetic position than previously realised. Further morphological considerations, proposed here, are based on morphological characters newly observed by means of scanning electron microscopy. A new species from Israel is also described