Looking for the most venomous scorpion in France, the Yellow Scorpion (Buthus occitanus).
EDIT: Since the species Buthus pyranaeus (Ythier, 2021) was recently described in the paper "The genus Buthus Leach, 1815 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) in France with description of a new species from the Eastern Pyrenees", it is now unknown which species in France is most venomous. At the time that I had recorded this video, B. occitanus was the only Buthus species known from France.
LD50 (BotIT6 toxin) values by geography:
1. Buthus occitanus "Mediterranean" - 0.90 and 1.44mg/kg
2. Buthus occitanus paris "S. France" - 4.15mg/kg
3. Buthus occitanus tunetanus "N. Africa" - 0.90mg/kg
A few notes to make here. As I mentioned in the video, B. occitanus "Mediterranean" is vague and hardly useful by itself, but one of its LD50 values matches up exactly with that of the group collected from North Africa (either Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, or Morocco) so we can reasonably assume that this group was also from North Africa. There are two values for the "Mediterranean" group because its actually comprised of two groups, Hassan 1984 and Zlotkin 1976, presumably from two separate locales. The subspecies denomination, B. o. paris, given to the group collected from Southern France is erroneous as far as I can tell. This is because B. occitanus spp. paris was a subspecies from Morocco that was elevated to its own species, Buthus paris, in 2003. Buthus paris was actually originally described as its own species in 1839, but there was some synonymization and reclassification between then and now, ultimately leading the species back to its current taxonomical position. When there is incongruity between collection data and an ID assigned to specimens by the collector, I tend to trust the data provided more, so, in this case, I believe that the specimens were truly collected from Southern France and are not B. paris from Morocco. Lastly, Buthus occitanus tunetanus, along with all subspecies of B. occitanus that once were, is no longer valid. It was elevated to the species level in 2003 too. This isn't too relevant to the subject matter though, I know, but I wanted to point out anything here that is outdated regardless. Buthus has had quite a few former subspecies, so I'm glad that modern systematics (as of 2000) mostly cleared up the mess, thus allowing us to understand an older venom analysis. Let me know what y'all think if you read any of that. :D
2nd channel: @generalapathy2
Instagram: me_and_the_alie...
13 дек 2021
