Scorpions of Iran (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part II. Bushehr Province

The Bushehr Province of Iran contains the type localities of three scorpion taxa, Mesobuthus eupeus phillipsii (Pocock, 1889), Orthochirus iranus Kovařík, 2004, and Scorpio maurus townsendi (Pocock, 1900). Apart from them, Androctonus crassicauda (Olivier, 1807), Compsobuthus matthiesseni (Birula, 1905), Hottentotta saulcyi (Simon, 1880), Odontobuthus bidentatus Lourenço & Pézier, 2002, Razianus zarudnyi (Birula, 1903), and Hemiscorpius lepturus Peters, 1862 have also been known to occur in the province. Collections made by a team under Shahrokh Navidpour (Razi Reference Laboratory of Scorpion Research, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Ahvaz, Khoozestan, Iran) reveal four additional species recorded from the province for the first time: Buthacus macrocentrus (Ehrenberg, 1828), Compsobuthus jakesi Kovařík, 2003, Orthochirus farzanpayi (Vachon & Farzanpay, 1987), and Orthochirus stockwelli (Lourenço et Vachon, 1995). In addition, Compsobuthus persicus sp. n. is described as a species new to science, bringing the total species count to 14. A key to all species of scorpions found in Bushehr Province is presented