Scorpiofauna of Kashan (Esfahan Province, Iran) (Arachnida: Scorpiones)

This work contains the results of the zoological expedition of the Società Romana di Scienze Naturali to Kashan, in Iran. Four days of intensive field research provided interesting data on the community structure of scorpions of Kashan. Thirty-two scorpion specimens, all belonging to the family Buthidae, are listed and ecological notes are included. Iranobuthus krali Kovařík, 1997, Kraepelinia palpator (Birula, 1903) and Polisius persicus Fet, Capes & Sissom, 2001 were found for the first time in the examined localities. The species collected belong to different ecomorpho-types, characteristic for the particular geographic position of Kashan. We report presence of two species with a wide Middle Eastern distribution (Compsobuthus matthiesseni (Birula, 1905); Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807)), Asian distribution (Mesobuthus eupeus C. L. Koch, 1839) as well as presence of endemic Iranian and Central Asian taxa (Kraepelinia palpator (Birula, 1903); Polisius persicus Fet, Capes & Sissom, 2001; Compsobuthus kaftani Kovařík, 2003; Iranobuthus krali Kovařík, 1997; Mesobuthus vesiculatus (Pocock, 1899)). Thus, Kashan seems to be situated in the region where several types of geographic ranges overlap and could be regarded as a “hot spot” for scorpiofauna. Some biogeographical considerations, and a checklist of the scorpion species known for Kashan are given