Catalog of the Scorpions of the world (1758-1998)

Victor Fet, Department of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, USA,

W. David Sissom, Department of Life, Earth, & Environmental Sciences, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, Texas, USA,

Graeme Lowe, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, &

Matt E. Braunwalder, Arachnodata, Zurich, Switzerland.

This unique and timely publication is the first such Catalog to be produced in over 100 years. The last full survey of the taxonomy of the world fauna of the Order Scorpiones was by Karl Kraepelin in 1899 - Scorpiones und Pedipalpi. Das Tierreich. Herausgegeben von der Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft. Berlin. Since then, the sheer number of known species and subspecies has increased more than fourfold, and the classification of scorpions has been greatly transformed at both the generic and familial levels. This new Catalog brings together under one cover an enormous amount of difficult-to-locate information on scorpion nomenclature, biogeography, distribution and phylogeny, published before and after Kraepelin's time. It is of special interest because of the unique status that scorpions currently enjoy as models for the study of evolutionary biology, ecology, toxicology, and physiology.

The Catalog is much more than a checklist - it is an annotated, organized compendium of the status of the entire field of Scorpion Taxonomy at the beginning of the New Millennium, by authoritative and critical researchers working in the field. The authors have coordinated and collaborated extensively to make this a fully integrated work. The utility of the Catalog is enormously enhanced by the inclusion of much greater detail than other animal catalogs, including type data, tracing of full synonymies of all names, clarification or critical discussion of known nomenclatural problems, comprehensive cross index, and notes on biogeography and phylogeny.

The New York Entomological Society. April 2000. 690 pp. $60.00. ISBN 0-913-42424-2

Ordering:
Louis N. Sorkin, Entomology Section, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY 10024-5192, phone: 212-769-5613, fax: 212-769-5277; email: sorkin@amnh.com