How many nature enthusiasts can relate to this scenario: you’re watching the landscape go by as you drive, and suddenly you see an area that could be favorable habitat for your target species. Stop the car! That’s what Prakrit Jain did, and it helped him and his coauthors describe a new species of Paruroctonus scorpion from the San Joaquin Valley. So much makes this scorpion interesting, from the unique and at-risk habitat it occupies to the fascinating story of its description. Why describe new species? Prakrit says it best: “Because if this scorpion can get conservation attention then it doesn’t just save the scorpion it saves everything that lives alongside it, and that might be thousands of different species.”
Prakrit Jain’s paper “A new species of alkali-sink Paruroctonus Werner, 1934 (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae) from California’s San Joaquin Valley” is in issue 1185 of Zookeys.
It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1185.103574
A transcript of this episode can be found here: Prakrit Jain - Transcript
New Species: Paruroctonus tulare
Episode image courtesy of Prakrit Jain
Follow Prakrit on Instagram: @bothrops_et_al
Connect with Prakrit on iNaturalist: @prakrit
iNaturalist records of this new species: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/192661164
News coverage of this species description:
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/new-species-scorpion-california-san-joaquin-18537552.php
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