Paruroctonus tulare is a species of scorpion in the genus Paruroctonus. It lives in the deserts of Northern and Southern California where it is found in several areas of the San Joaquin Valley. The species epithet tulare is in reference to the historically diverted Tulare Lake and associated basin around which the scorpion is now found.[1]
| Paruroctonus tulare | |
|---|---|
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| Images of Paruroctonus tulare in the wild from the original species description. | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Scorpiones |
| Family: | Vaejovidae |
| Genus: | Paruroctonus |
| Species: | P. tulare
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| Binomial name | |
| Paruroctonus tulare | |
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Discovery
editJust like the previously described P. soda and P. conclusus, P. tulare was recognized by Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes as potentially new when observations uploaded to iNaturalist could not be assigned to a known species. The pair was assisted in making a new species description by Lauren Esposito and Jacob Gorneau of the California Academy of Sciences.[2]
Conservation
editAccording to the researchers who described the species, P. tulare meets all necessary criteria to be assessed as endangered or critically endangered under the IUCN Red List framework. It is considered an alkali sink specialist species and appears to have experience significant range and population contractions due to habitat degradation and increasing prevalence of invasive species.[3]
References
edit- ^ Jain, P.; Forbes, H.; Gorneau, J.; Esposito, L. (2024). "A new species of alkali-sink Paruroctonus Werner, 1934 (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae) from California's San Joaquin Valley". ZooKeys (1185): 199–239. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1185.103574. PMC 10701917. PMID 38074909.
- ^ "'Very unusual': New scorpion species discovered among trash in California: An endangered scorpion species is mystifying Bay Area researchers". sfgate.com. 6 December 2023. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
- ^ "Scientists describe 153 new species in 2023: An endangered scorpion from the San Joaquin Desert". phys.org. Retrieved 2024-01-20.
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