Morphological Study and Parametric Values of Mesobuthus phillipsii(Pocock,1889) (Arachnida: Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Iran, Atumn 2023

Kamali, Farzaneh; Kassiri*, Hamid; Kasiri, Arvin; Kasiri, Arian; Kasiri, Rozhin; Lotfi, Masoud; Hosseininejad, Seyedeh Masoumeh

doi:10.22118/jjhs.2025.231433

Morphological Study and Parametric Values of Mesobuthus phillipsii(Pocock,1889) (Arachnida: Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Iran, Atumn 2023

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Farzaneh Kamali ¹

Hamid Kassiri* ²

Arvin Kasiri ³

Arian Kasiri ⁴

Rozhin Kasiri ⁴

Masoud Lotfi ⁵

Seyedeh Masoumeh Hosseininejad ⁶

¹ Student Research Committee, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.

² Faculty of Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.

³ Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

⁴ Faculty of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

⁵ Faculty of Health, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

⁶ Student Research Committee, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

10.22118/jjhs.2025.231433

Abstract

Background and Objective: The family Buthidae is the largest scorpion family, which, in addition to having a wide distribution worldwide, includes the most dangerous species. Scorpions of the genus Mesobuthus belong to the family Buthidae and are distributed throughout all regions of Iran, being the dominant species in most provinces.The present study was conducted in autumn 2023 to investigate the morphometric characteristics of Mesobuthus phillipsii in Rudan County, southern Iran.
Methods: A total of 40 adult male and female M. phillipsii scorpions (20 males and 20 females) were collected around the clock from the plain and mountainous areas. Then, the most important morphometric indices were measured using a graduated caliper. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using Excel. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the quantitative variable between the two groups (male and female). A P-value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Findings: More than half of the morphometric indices were significantly different between male and female M. phillipsii scorpions. The sizes of various body parts were larger in female scorpions compared to their male counterparts (except for the length and number of teeth of the pectin organ). The number of pectin teeth was (20±1.41) in females and (25±0.06) in males. The number of pectin teeth, as one of the important sensory organs in scorpions, is used to distinguish between sexes and to identify species.
Conclusion: This study, focused on examining the morphometric traits of the scorpion species M. phillipsii, revealed that females exhibited higher average values for most measured morphometric characteristics compared to males, except for the number of pectin teeth, which did not differ significantly between the sexes.

Keywords

Scorpion

Mesobuthus phillipsii

Morphometry

Buthidae

Iran

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