SCORPIONS OF MEDICAL IMPORTANCE.

by Jan Ove Rein & Kari McWest

Important Notice!
Here you will find a list of species that are reported to have medical significance in the literature. It is important to note that this list is not exhaustive. Species not mentioned in this list might pose a threat to humans. Many scorpions live in desert areas and have little or no contact with humans. These species might be dangerous, but stings rarely, if ever, happen. In addition, a lot of severe cases will not be reported in medical journals. This is especially true in the less developed countries. An additional problem is that the scorpion causing the sting is unknown, or not properly identified. Also, many stings are dry or a reduced amount of venom is used, causing minor/mild symptoms and by this camouflaging a dangerous species. It is therefore important to emphasize that the list presented here only covers species documented to cause moderate to severe symptoms in humans. Other species, especially species closely related to those known to be dangerous, might also pose a threat to humans.

Update 16.10.18: Ward et al. 2018 has published an extensive global review of medically important scorpions. I have updated this page with the results from this article.

Source:
Ward MJ, Ellsworth SA, Nystrom GS. A global accounting of medically significant scorpions: Epidemiology, major toxins, and comparative resources in harmless counterparts. Toxicon. 2018;151:137-55.

This list is updated continuously and can not be considered complete when it comes to species of potentital medical importance. The distributional information is also not complete for all species.

Bothriuridae:

Buthidae:

Androctonus:
A. amoreuxi (Audouin, 1826) (Egypt, Mali, Morocco)
A. australis (Linnaeus, 1758) (North Africa, Middle East)
A. bicolor Ehrenberg, 1828 (North Africa, Middle East)
A. crassicauda (Olivier, 1807) (North Africa, Middle East, Asia)
A. liouvillei (Pallary, 1924) (Morocco)
A. mauritanicus (Pocock, 1902) (Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco)
Other Androctonus species may also be of medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Apistobuthus:
A. pterygocerus Finnegan, 1932 (Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen)

Buthacus:
B. macrocentrus (Ehrenberg, 1828) (Middle East)

Buthus:
B. lienhardi Lourenço, 2003 (Morocco)
B. malhommei Vachon, 1949 (Morocco)
B. mardochei Simon, 1878 (Morocco)
B. occitanus (Amoreux, 1789) (France, Spain)
B. paris (C. L. Koch, 1839) (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia)
B. tunetanus (Herbst, 1800) (Algeria, Libya, Morocci, Tunisia)
Other African Buthus species may also be om medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Centruroides:
C. balsasensis Ponce & Francke, 2004 (Mexico)
C. bicolor (Pocock, 1898) (Panama)
C. bonito Quijano-Ravell, Teruel & Ponce-Saavedra, 2016
C. chamela Ponce-Saavedra and Francke, 2011
C. elegans (Thorell, 1876) (Mexico)
C. elegans insularis Pocock, 1902
C. exilicauda (Wood, 1863)
C. gracilis (Latreille, 1804) (Caribbean, Central and South America (northern parts))
C. granosus (Thorell, 1876) (Panama)
C. hirsutipalpus Ponce-Saavedra & Francke, 2009 (Mexico)
C. huichol Teruel, Ponce-Saavedra, Quijano-Ravell, 2015 (Mexico)
C. infamatus (C. L. Koch, 1844) (Mexico)
C. limbatus (Pocock, 1898) (Central America)
C. limpidus (Karsch, 1879) (Mexico)
C. margaritatus (Gervais, 1841) (Central America)
C. mascota Ponce-Saavedra and Francke, 2011
C. meisei Hoffmann, 1939 (Mexico)
C. noxius Hoffman, 1932 (Mexico)
C. ornatus Pocock, 1902 (Mexico)
C. pallidiceps Pocock, 1902
C. panamensis Arias & Esposito, 2014 (Panama)
C. pococki Sissom & Francke, 1983 (Lesser Antilles)
C. poncei Teruel, Kovarik, Baldazo-Monsivaiz &Hoferek, 2015
C. ruana Quijano-Ravell & Ponce-Saavedra, 2016
C. sculpturatus Ewing, 1928
Centruroides sp. nv. B (Cumpas, Sonora, Mexico)
Centruroides sp. nv. A (Huajuapan, Oaxaca, Mexico in prep.)
C. suffusus Pocock, 1902 (Mexico)
C. tecomanus Hoffmann, 1932 (Mexico)
C. testaceus (DeGeer, 1778) (Lesser Antilles, Venezuela)
C. villegasi Baldazo-Monsivaiz, Ponce-Saavedra & Flores-Moreno, 2013 (Mexico)
Other Centruroides species may also be om medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Compsobuthus:
C. matthiesseni (Birula, 1905) (Iran)
C. persicus Navidpour, Soleglad, Fet & Kovarik, 2008 (Iran)

Hottentotta:
H. gentili( Pallary, 1924) (Algeria, Morocco)
H. alticola (Pocock, 1895)
H. jayakari (Pocock, 1895) (Middle East)
?H. hottentotta (Fabricius, 1787)
H. saulcyi (Simon, 1880) (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey)
H. schach (Birula, 1905) (Iran, Iraq)
H. tamulus (Fabricius, 1798) (previously Mesobuthus tamulus) (India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
H. zagroensis Kovarík, 1997 (Iran)
Other Hottentotta species may also be om medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Jaguajir:
J. rochae (Borelli, 1910) (Brazil) (Formerly in genus Rhopalurus)

Leiurus:
L. abdullahbayrami Yagmur, Koc & Kunt, 2009 (Syria, Turkey)
L. arabicus Lowe, Yagmur & Kovarik, 2014 (Saudi Arabia)
L. brachycentrus (Ehrenberg, 1829) (Saudi Arabia, Yemen)
L. haengii Lowe, Yagmur & Kovarik, 2014 (Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen)
L. heberti Lowe, Yagmur & Kovarik, 2014 (Oman)
L. hebraeus (Birula, 1908) (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria)
L. jordanensis Lourenço, Modry & Amr, 2002 (Jordan, Saudi Arabia)
L. macroctenus Lowe, Yagmur & Kovarik, 2014 (Oman)
L. nasheri Kovarik, 2007 (?)
L. quinquestriatus (Ehrenberg, 1828) (Egypt, Sudan)
L. savanicola Lourenço, Qi & Cloudsley-Thompson, 2006 (?)
Other Leiurus species may also be om medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Mesobuthus:
M. caucasicus complex (Iran, Turkey)
M. eupeus (C. L. Koch, 1839) (Iran, Turkey)
M. gibbosus (Brulle, 1832) (Greece, Balkan, Bulgaria, Turkey)
[M. tamulus (Fabricius, 1798)[ New name Hottentotta tamulus]
Other Mesobuthus species may also be om medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Odontobuthus:
O. doriae (Thorell, 1876) (Iran)

Orthochirus:
O. scrobiculosis (Grube, 1873) (Iran)

Parabuthus:
P. granulatus (Ehrenberg, 1831) (Southern Africa)
P. maximus Werner, 1913 (previously known as P. lisoma) (Kenya, Tanzania)
P. mossambicensis (Peters, 1861) (Southern Africa)
P. transvaalicus Purcell, 1899 (Southern Africa)
P. villosus (Peters, 1862) (Angola, Namibia, South Africa)
Other Parabuthus species may also be om medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Rhopalurus:
?R. debilis (C. L. Koch, 1840)

Tityus:
T. apiacas Lourenço 2002 (Brazil)
T. argentinus Borelli, 1899
T. arellanoparrai González-Sponga, 1985 (Venezuela)
T. asthenes Pocock, 1893 (Central and South America)
T. bahiensis (Perty, 1833) (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay
T. bastosi Lourenço 1984 (Central and South America)
T. breweri González-Sponga, 1997 (Venezuela)
T. carabobensis González-Sponga, 1987 (Venezuela)
T. caripitensis GQuiroga, deSousa & Parrilla-Alvarez, 2000 (Venezuela)
T. cerroazul Lourenço, 1986 (Costa Rica, Panama)
T. confluens Borelli, 1899 (South America)
T. costatus (Karsh, 1879) (Brazil)
?T. dasyurus Pocock, 1897
T. discrepans (Karsch, 1879) (Venezuela)
T. falconensis (Karsch, 1879) (Venezuela)
T. festae Borelli, 1899 (Colombia, Panama)
?T. forcipula (Gervais, 1843)
T. feuhrmanni Kraepelin, 1914(Colombia)
T. isabelceciliae González-Sponga, D'Suze & Sevcik, 2001(Venezuela)
T. ivic-nancor González-Sponga, 1997(Venezuela)
T. magnimanus Pocock, 1897 (Venezuela)
T. matthieseni Lourenço & Pinto-da-Rocha, 2000 (Brazil)
T. mettuendus Pocock, 1897 (Brazil, Peru)
T. monaguensis González-Sponga, 1974 (Venezuela)
T. neoespartanus González-Sponga, 1996 (Venezuela)
T. nororientalis González-Sponga, 1996 (Venezuela)
T. obscurus (Gervais, 1843) (Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname)
T. pachyrus Pocock, 1897 (Central America)
s ?T. parvulus Kraepelin, 1914
T. perijanensis González-Sponga, 1994 (Venezuela)
T. pittieri González-Sponga, 1981 (Venezuela)
T. pusillus Pocock, 1893 (Brazil)
?T. pugilator Pocock, 1898
T. quirogae De Sousa, Manzanilla & Parrilla-Alvarez, 2006 (Venezuela)
T. sanarensis González-Sponga, 1997 (Venezuela)
T. serrulatus Lutz & Mello, 1922 (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil)
T. silvestris Pocock, 1897 (Brazil, Fench Guiana, Peru)
T. stigmurus (Thorell, 1876) (Brazil)
T. surorientalis González-Sponga, 1996 (Venezuela)
T. trinitatis Pocock, 1897 (Trinidad and Tobago)
?T. trinitatus Pocock, 1897
T. trivittatus Kraepelin, 1898 (Argentina, Brazil)
T. valarae Scorza, 1954 (Venezuela)
T. zulianus González-Sponga, 1981 (Venezuela)
Other Tityus species may also be om medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Caraboctonidae:

Chactidae:
No species of medical importance have been reported.

Chaerilidae:

Diplocentridae:
Nebo:
Nebo hierochonticus (Simon, 1872) (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria).

Euscorpidae:

Hemiscorpiidae:
Hemiscorpius:
   Hemiscorpius acanthocercus Monod & Lourenço, 2005 (Iran)
   Hemiscorpius lepturus Peters, 1861 (Middle East)
Other Hemiscorpius species may also be om medical importance, but specific data are missing.

Iuridae:

Microcharmidae:

Pseudochactidae:

Scorpionidae:

NB! The information in Hugh Keegan's book "Scorpions of Medical Importance" that Scorpio maurus Sensu Lato has a medical importance is wrong. The author has confused this information from a French article dealing with this species and Buthus occitanus Sensu Lato. The medical importance data for Scorpio maurus in the book as actually for Buthus occitanus.

Superstitioniidae:

Urodacidae:

Vaejovidae: