A phylogenomic analysis of the genus Auyantepuia (Scorpiones: Chactidae) in French Guiana with the descriptions of two new species
Abstract
A review of the scorpions of the genus Auyantepuia (Scorpiones, Chactidae) in French Guiana is conducted using an integrative taxonomic approach combining molecular analysis performed on the mitochondrial genome of most species occurring in the territory and more traditional morphological analyses, leading to the descriptions of two new species, Auyantepuia kwata sp. nov. and Auyantepuia manmandinan sp. nov. Diagnoses are presented for all Auyantepuia species occurring in French Guiana and an identification key is proposed. The total number of recognized species in the genus Auyantepuia species is raised to 15.
References
Abascal F., Zardoya R. & Telford M.J. 2010. TranslatorX: multiple alignment of nucleotide sequences guided by amino acid translations. Nucleic Acids Research 38 (Suppl. 2): W7–W13. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkq291
Bernt M., Donath A., Jühling F., Externbrink F., Florentz C., Fritzsch G., Pütz J., Middendorf M. & Stadler P.F. 2013. MITOS: Improved de novo metazoan mitochondrial genome annotation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 69 (2): 313–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2012.08.023
Cally S., Lhuillier E., Iribar A., Garzon-Orduña I., Coissac E. & Murienne J. 2014. Shotgun assembly of the complete mitochondrial genome of the Neotropical cracker butterfly Hamadryas epinome. Mitochondrial DNA 16: 1–3.
Capella-Gutiérrez S., Silla-Martínez J.M. & Gabaldón T. 2009. trimAl: a tool for automated alignment trimming in large-scale phylogenetic analyses. Bioinformatics 25 (15): 1972–1973. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btp348
Chernomor O., Von Haeseler A. & Minh B.Q. 2016. Terrace aware data structure for phylogenomic inference from supermatrices. Systematic Biology 65 (6): 997–1008. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syw037
Dierckxsens N., Mardulyn P. & Smits G. 2016. NOVOPlasty: de novo assembly of organelle genomes from whole genome data. Nucleic Acids Research: gkw955. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw955
Fet V. & Soleglad M.E. 2005. Contributions to scorpion systematics. I. On recent changes in high-level taxonomy. Euscorpius 2005 (31): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2005.vol2005.iss31.1
Fiedler L., Middendorf M. & Bernt M. 2023. Fully automated annotation of mitochondrial genomes using a cluster-based approach with de Bruijn graphs. Frontiers in Genetics 14: 1250907. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2023.1250907
Folmer O., Black M., Hoeh W., Lutz R. & Vrijenhoek R. 1994. DNA primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I from diverse metazoan invertebrates. Molecular Marine Biology and Biotechnology 3 (5): 294–299.
Graham M.R., Santibáñez-López C.E., Zehnpfennig J.R., Tillman D.S. & Murdoch B. 2024. Serendipitous Discovery of Desert Hairy Scorpion Mitogenomes as Bycatch in Venom Data via Nanopore Sequencing. Arthropoda 2 (2): 119–129. https://doi.org/10.3390/arthropoda2020009
Hjelle J.T. 1990. Anatomy and morphology. In: The Biology of Scorpions. Polis G. A. (ed.): 9–63. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hoang D.T., Chernomor O., Von Haeseler A., Minh B.Q. & Vinh L.S. 2018. UFBoot2: Improving the Ultrafast Bootstrap Approximation. Molecular Biology and Evolution 35 (2): 518–522. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx281
Kalyaanamoorthy S., Minh B.Q., Wong T.K.F., Von Haeseler A. & Jermiin L.S. 2017. ModelFinder: fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nature Methods 14 (6): 587–589. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4285
Kapli P., Lutteropp S., Zhang J., Kobert K., Pavlidis P., Stamatakis A. & Flouri T. 2017. Multi-rate Poisson tree processes for single-locus species delimitation under maximum likelihood and Markov chain Monte Carlo. Bioinformatics 33 (11): 1630–1638. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btx025
Katoh K. & Standley D.M. 2013. MAFFT Multiple Sequence Alignment Software Version 7: Improvements in Performance and Usability. Molecular Biology and Evolution 30 (4): 772–780. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst010
Kearse M., Moir R., Wilson A., Stones-Havas S., Cheung M., Sturrock S., Buxton S., Cooper A., Markowitz S., Duran C., Thierer T., Ashton B., Meintjes P. & Drummond A. 2012. Geneious Basic: An integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence data. Bioinformatics 28 (12): 1647–1649. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bts199
Kocher A., Kamilari M., Lhuillier E., Coissac E., Péneau J., Chave J. & Murienne J. 2014. Shotgun assembly of the assassin bug Brontostoma colossus mitochondrial genome (Heteroptera, Reduviidae). Gene 15: 184–94.
Kocher A., Guilbert E., Lhuillier E. & Murienne J. 2015. Sequencing of the mitochondrial genome of the avocado lace bug Pseudacysta perseae (Heteroptera, Tingidae) using a genome skimming approach. Comptes Rendus, Biologies 338 (3): 149–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crvi.2014.12.004
Kocher A., Gantier J.-C., Holota H., Jeziorski C., Coissac E., Bañuls A.-L., Girod R., Gaborit P. & Murienne J. 2016. Complete mitochondrial genome of Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) umbratilis (Diptera: Psychodidae), the main vector of Leishmania guyanensis. Mitochondrial DNA: 1–3. https://doi.org/10.3109/19401736.2015.1022748
Kück P. & Longo G.C. 2014. FASconCAT-G: extensive functions for multiple sequence alignment preparations concerning phylogenetic studies. Frontiers in Zoology 11 (1): 81. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-014-0081-x
Kück P. & Meusemann K. 2010. FASconCAT: Convenient handling of data matrices. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56 (3): 1115–1118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2010.04.024
Lourenco W.R. 1983. La faune des scorpions de Guyane française. Bulletin du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle 5 (3): 771–808. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.285966
Lourenço W.R. 2018. The scorpions from the Mitaraka Massif in French Guiana (Scorpiones: Buthidae, Chactidae). Zoosystema 40 (sp1): 367. https://doi.org/10.5252/zoosystema2018v40a14
Lourenço W.R. 2021. The genus Microananteris Lourenço, 2003 in French Guiana (Scorpiones: Buthidae). Zoosystema 43 (20). https://doi.org/10.5252/zoosystema2021v43a20
Lourenço W.R. & Chevalier J. 2022. A further new species of the genus Microananteris Lourenço, 2003, from French Guiana (Scorpiones, Buthidae). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 127 (1): 91–99. https://doi.org/10.32475/bsef_2228
Lourenço W.R. & Duhem B. 2010. Further considarations on the genus Ananteris Thorll, 1891 (Scorpiones, Buthidae) in Brazilian Amazonia and description of two new species. Boletin de la Sociedad Entomologica Aragonesa 47: 33–38.
Lourenço W.R. & Qi J.-X. 2007. Additions à la faune des scorpions de l’Etat du Amapá, Brésil (Chelicerata, Scorpiones). Revue suisse de Zoologie 114: 3–12. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.80384
Lourenço W.R., Chevalier J. & Ythier É. 2022. Second record of the genus Spinochactas Lourenço, 2016 in French Guiana and description of a new species (Scorpiones: Chactidae). Annales de la Société entomologique de France 58 (6): 540–546. https://doi.org/10.1080/00379271.2022.2130505
Mariette J., Escudié F., Allias N., Salin G., Noirot C., Thomas S. & Klopp C. 2012. NG6: Integrated next generation sequencing storage and processing environment. BMC Genomics 13 (1): 462. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-13-462
Minh B.Q., Schmidt H.A., Chernomor O., Schrempf D., Woodhams M.D., Von Haeseler A. & Lanfear R. 2020. IQ-TREE 2: New Models and Efficient Methods for Phylogenetic Inference in the Genomic Era. Molecular Biology and Evolution 37 (5): 1530–1534. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa015
Moreno-Carmona M., Montaña-Lozano P., Prada Quiroga C.F. & Baeza J.A. 2023. Comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes reveals family-specific architectures and molecular features in scorpions (Arthropoda: Arachnida: Scorpiones). Gene 859: 147189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2023.147189
Mori S.A. 1991. The Guayana lowland floristic Province. Comptes Rendus de la Société de Biogéographie 67: 67–75.
Prendini L. & Wheeler W.C. 2005. Scorpion higher phylogeny and classification, taxonomic anarchy, and standards for peer review in online publishing. Cladistics 21 (5): 446–494. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-0031.2005.00073.x
Puillandre N., Lambert A., Brouillet S. & Achaz G. 2012. ABGD, Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery for primary species delimitation. Molecular Ecology 21 (8): 1864–1877. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05239.x
Santibáñez-López C.E., González-Santillán E., Monod L. & Sharma P.P. 2019. Phylogenomics facilitates stable scorpion systematics: Reassessing the relationships of Vaejovidae and a new higher-level classification of Scorpiones (Arachnida). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 135: 22–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2019.02.021
Santibáñez-López C.E., Ojanguren-Affilastro A.A. & Sharma P.P. 2020. Another one bites the dust: taxonomic sampling of a key genus in phylogenomic datasets reveals more non-monophyletic groups in traditional scorpion classification. Invertebrate Systematics 34 (2): 133. https://doi.org/10.1071/IS19033
Santibáñez-López C.E., Aharon S., Ballesteros J.A., Gainett G., Baker C.M., González-Santillán E., Harvey M.S., Hassan M.K., Abu Almaaty A.H., Aldeyarbi S.M., Monod L., Ojanguren-Affilastro A., Pinto-da-Rocha R., Zvik Y., Gavish-Regev E. & Sharma P.P. 2022. Phylogenomics of Scorpions Reveal Contemporaneous Diversification of Scorpion Mammalian Predators and Mammal-Active Sodium Channel Toxins. Systematic Biology 71 (6): 1281–1289. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syac021
Santibáñez-López C.E., Ojanguren-Affilastro A.A., Graham M.R. & Sharma P.P. 2023. Congruence between ultraconserved element-based matrices and phylotranscriptomic datasets in the scorpion Tree of Life. Cladistics 39 (6): 533–547. https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12551
Soleglad M.E. & Fet V. 2003. High-level systematics and phylogeny of the extant scorpions (Scorpiones: Orthosterni). Euscorpius 2003: 1–56. https://doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2003.vol2003.iss11.1
Soltan-Alinejad P., Rafinejad J., Dabiri F., Onorati P., Terenius O. & Chavshin A.R. 2021. Molecular analysis of the mitochondrial markers COI, 12S rDNA and 16S rDNA for six species of Iranian scorpions. BMC Research Notes 14: 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05449-3
Stahnke H.L. 1970. Scorpion nomenclature and mensuration. Entomological News 81: 297–316.
Vachon M. 1963. De l’utilité, en systématique, d’une nomenclature des dents des chélicères chez les scorpions. Bulletin du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle 35 (2): 161–166.
Vachon M. 1974. Étude des caractères utilisés pour classer des familles et les genres de Scorpions (Arachnides). 1. La trichobothriotaxie en Arachnologie. Sigles trichobothriaux et types de trichobothriotaxie chez les Scorpions. Bulletin du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle 3 (140): 857–958.
Xu W., Zhang G., Xu T., He K., Wang J., Liu Z. & Liu H. 2025. Comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes from Buthidae (Scorpiones): gene rearrangement and phylogenetic implications. Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 83: 3–13. https://doi.org/10.3897/asp.83.e140421
Ythier E. 2015. A new species of Auyantepuia González-Sponga, 1978 (Scorpiones, Chactidae) from French Guiana. ZooKeys 539: 97–109. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.539.6664
Ythier E. 2018a. A new species of Auyantepuia González-Sponga, 1978 (Scorpiones, Chactidae) from Brazil. Arachnida - Rivista Aracnologia Italiana 4 (20): 13–22.
Ythier E. 2018b. A synopsis of the scorpion fauna of French Guiana, with description of four new species. ZooKeys 764: 27–90. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.764.25108
Ythier E. & Chevalier J. 2020. Description of the males of Auyantepuia aluku Ythier, 2018, A. kelleri (Lourenço, 1997) and A. laurae Ythier, 2015, from French Guiana (Scorpiones, Chactidae). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 125 (3): 257–268. https://doi.org/10.32475/bsef_2143
Ythier E., Chevalier J. & Lourenço W.R. 2020. A synopsis of the genus Ananteris Thorell, 1891 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) in French Guiana, with description of four new species. Arachnida – Rivista Aracnologica Italiana 6 (28): 2–33.
Copyright (c) 2026 Eric Ythier, Johan Chevalier, Lucie Moreau, Jérôme Murienne

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons Copyright Notices
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are NOT PERMITTED to post their submitted work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on personal websites) prior to publication, as it may lead to nomenclatural issues.
