Sexual dimorphism in the scorpions of the genus Odontobuthus Vachon, 1950 (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Document Type : Research articles

Authors

• Hossein Barahoei ¹
• Shahrokh Navidpour ²
• Mansour Aliabadian ¹
• Roohollah Siahsarvie ¹
• Omid Mirshamsi ¹

¹ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Razi Reference Laboratory of Scorpion Research, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, P.O. Box 31975/148, Department of Venomous Animals and Toxins, Hesarak, Karaj, Iran

10.22067/ijab.v16i1.85063

Abstract

The Sexual dimorphism (SD) in body size is very common among the scorpions. In this study, the SD was investigated in two aspects of size and shape in the genus Odontobuthus Vachon, 1950 as a small genus of the family Buthidae. This genus has six fossorial species of which four are distributed in Iran. For this purpose, 43 morphometric variables, consisting of 38 metric measurements and five meristic characters were digitized in the six species, O. bidentatus, O. doriae, O. tavighiae, O. tirgari, O. sp.1 and O. sp.2. The results show that Sexual Size Dimorphism (SSD) were significant in three species:  O. doriae, O. tavighiae and O. sp.2. While O. sp.1 represented a SD for more aspects of shape, O. bidentatus did not show a significant SD for all studied traits. The amount of SD in size and shape were not the same in different species. The results showed that males have larger metasoma than females even when they are pulled to the same size. Having larger metasoma may correspond to a more efficient performance during mating, predation or combat with other males, so it should be under a high sexual selection. Type II ANOVA showed a significant interaction between species and sex for shape, but not for size. It suggests that the evolution of SD for size has been in parallel for all studied species, while it has been in different directions for shape. Among meristic variables, only the number of pectin denticles were sexually dimorphic, with males having more denticles than females in all studied species.
 

Keywords

• Odontobuthus
• Sexual dimorphism
• Morphometric
• Meristic
• Size
• shape

---

References

Andersson, M., 1994. Sexual Selection. Princeton Univer‌sity Press, Princeton, New Jersey. 624 p.

Booncham, U., Sitthicharoenchai, D., Pradatsundarasar, A., Prasarnpun, S., Thirakhupt, K., 2007. Sexual Dimorphism in the Asian Giant Forest Scorpion, Heterometrus laoticus Couzijn, 1981, NU Science Journal 4(1), 42-52.

Butler, M.A., Losos, J.B., 2002. Multivariate sexual dimorphism, sexual selection, and adaptation in Greater Antillean Anolis lizards. Ecological Monographs 72, 541-559.

Carlson, B.E., McGinley, S., Rowe, M.P., 2014. Meek Males and Fighting Females: Sexually-Dimorphic Antipredator Behavior and Locomotor Performance Is Explained by Morphology in Bark Scorpions (Centruroides vittatus). PLoS ONE 9(5), e97648. DOI: 10.1371/ journal.pone.0097648

Censky, E.J., 1997. Female mate choice in the non-territorial lizard Ameiva plei (Teiidae). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 40, 221-225.

Cooper, W.E.J., Vitt, L.J., 1993. Female mate choice of large male broad-headed skinks. Animal Behaviour 45, 683-693.

Eldredge, N., 1972. Systematics and evolution of Phacops rana (Green, 1832) and Phacops iowensis Delo, 1935 (Trilobita) from the middle Devonian of North America. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 147, 45-114.

Fathinia, B., Rastegar-Pouyani, N., 2011. Sexual dimorphism in Trapelus ruderatus ruderatus (Sauria: Agamidae) with notes on the natural history. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation 5(1), 15-22(e22).

Fox, J., Weisberg, S., 2019. An R Companion to Applied Regression, Third edition. Sage, Thousand Oaks CA. https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Books/Companion/.

Haradon, R.M., 1984. New and redefined species belonging to the Parauroctonus baergi group (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae). The Journal of Arachnology 12, 205-221

Katsikaros, K., Shine, R., 1997. Sexual dimorphism in the tusked frog, Adelotus brevis (Anura: Myobatrachidae): the roles of natural and sexual selection. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 60, 39-51.

Kembel, S.W., Cowan, P.D., Helmus, M.R., Cornwell, W. K., Morlon, H., Ackerly, D.D., Blomberg, S.P., Webb, C.O., 2010. Picante: R tools for integrating phylogenies and ecology. Bioinformatics 26, 1463-1464.

Kovarik, F., 2004. A review of the Genus Heterometrus Ehrenberg, 1828, with Descriptions of Seven New Species (Scorpiones, Scorpionidae). Euscorpius 15, 1-60.

Kuo, C.Y., Lin, Y.T., Lin, Y.S., 2009. Sexual Size and Shape Dimorphism in an Agamid Lizard, Japalura swinhonis (Squamata: Lacertilia: Agamidae). Zoological Studies 48(3), 351-361.

Lamoral, B.H., 1979. The scorpions of Namibia. Annals of the Natal Museum 23, 497-784.

Lourenço, W.R., Pezier, A., 2002. Taxonomic consideration of the genus Odontobuthus Vachon (Scorpiones, Buthidae), with description of a new species. Revue suisse de Zoologie 109(1), 115-125.

Lowe, G., 2010. A new species of Odontobuthus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from northern Oman. Euscorpius 96, 1-22.

McLean, C.J., Garwood, R.J., Brassey, C.A., 2019. Sexual dimorphism in the size and shape of the raptorial pedipalps of Giant Whip Spiders (Arachnida: Amblypygi). Journal of Zoology 1-10. DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12726

Mirshamsi, O., Azghadi, S., Navidpour, Sh., Aliabadian, M., Kovařik, F., 2013. Odontobuthus tirgari sp. nov. (Scorpiones, Buthidae) from the eastern region of the Iranian Plateau. Zootaxa 3731(1), 153-170.

Monnet, J.M., Cherry, M.I., 2002. Sexual size dimorphism in anurans. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B - Biological Sciences 269, 2301-2307.

Mori, E., Mazza, G., Lovari, S., 2017. Sexual Dimorphism. Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior 433, 1-7. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6.

Navarro, N., Zatarain, X., Montuire, S., 2004. Effects of morphometric descriptor changes on statistical classification and morphospaces. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 83, 243-260.

Navidpour, Sh., Soleglad, M.E., Fet, V., Kovařik, F., 2013. Scorpions of Iran (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part IX. Hormozgan province, with a description of Odontobuthus tavighiae sp. n. (Buthidae). Euscorpius 170, 1-29.

Olsson, M., Shine, R., Wapstra, E., Ujvari, B., Madsen, T., 2002. Sexual dimorphism in lizard body shape: The roles of sexual selection and fecundity selection. Evolution 56(7), 1538-1542.

Ozkan, O, Adiguzel, S., Kar, S., 2006. Parametric values of Androctonus crassicauda (Oliver, 1807) (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Turkey. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases 12, 549-559.

Palen-Pietri, R., Ceballos, A., Peretti, A.V., 2019. Sexual dimorphism and patterns of sexual behavior in Lustrochernes argentines (Pseudoscorpiones: Chernetidae). Journal of Arachnology 47, 344-350.

Polis, G.A., 1990. The biology of scorpions. Stanford University Press. 233 Pp.

R Core Team, 2019. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.R-project.org/.

Schwarzkopf, L., 2005. Sexual dimorphism in body shape without sexual dimorphism in body size in water skinks (Eulamprus quoyii). Herpetologica 61, 116-123.

Sentenska, L., Franziska, G., Richard, M., Kropf, C., 2017. Sexual dimorphism in venom gland morphology in a sexually stinging scorpion. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 122(2), 429-443. DOI: 10.1093/biolinnean/blx067.

Sissom, W.D., 1990. Systematics, biogeography and paleontology. In: Polis, G.A. (Ed.), Biology of Scorpions. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 64–160.

Shine, R., 1989. Ecological causes for the evolution of sexual dimorphism: a review of the evidence. The Quarterly Review of Biology 64(4), 419-461.

Stahnke, H.L., 1970. Scorpion nomenclature and mensuration. Entomological News 81, 297-316.

Tague, R.G., 2005. Big-bodied males help us recognize that females have big pelvis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 127, 392-405.

Thompson, G.G., Withers, P.C., 2005. Size-free shape differences between male and female Western Australian dragon lizards (Agamidae). Amphibia-Reptilia 26, 55-63.

Wickham, H., 2016. ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. Springer-Verlag New York.

Zhang, X., Xiong, J.L., Lv, Y.Y., Zhang, L., Sun, Y.Y., 2014. Sexual size and shape dimorphism in the Wushan salamander, Liua shihi (Liu, 1950) (Urodela: Hynobiidae). Italian Journal of Zoology, 81(3), 368-373. DOI: 10.1080/11250003.2014.920927.