Overview on Scorpions of Algeria

Sadine, Salaheddine; Djilani, Salma; Kerboua, Keireddine

Algerian Journal of Health Sciences
Volume 2, Numéro 2, Pages 8-14
2020-09-02

Overview On Scorpions Of Algeria

Auteurs : Sadine Salaheddine . Djilani Salma . Kerboua Keireddine .

Résumé

Background: Since the important work of Vachon on the scorpions of North African published in 1952 at the Pasteur Institute of Algeria, seems fix a limit to the knowledge of the Algerian scorpionic faunato a number of 24 species and subspecies and up to 2000, research on this fauna remained very weak. This study aims to identify all the species recorded to date in Algeria. Material and Methods: In order to update this list, a morphological revision is carried out on an old scorpion material deposited in Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelles- Paris (France) and other material recently capturedduring the period 2012-2019. Results: A certain number of subspecies is raised to the rank of species, while others are synonymous. Therefore, the current list of Algerian scorpion fauna contains 46 species and subspecies divided into 14 genera and three families (Buthidae, Euscorpiidae et Scorpionidae). This scorpion list, attests to a very important diversity estimated 1.8% of the world's known species, with 24 recently discovered species, a large part of them are endemic (58%). However, potentially dangerous species for humans are estimated at 20%. Conclusion : Our results on Algerian scorpion diversity can be considered as a basic data for the other specialists such as epidemiologists in case of scorpion sting envenomation, biochemists for the quality and diversity of venoms and immunologists to develop adequate immunotherapy.