Abstract
Abstract Leucism is a congenital disorder in which the individual is born with partial hypopigmentation. It is quite common in vertebrates, but rare in invertebrates, especially in arachnids like scorpions. This paper presents the first record of this congenital disorder to be observed in the order Scorpiones. During field studies in the Area de Conservacao Aldeia-Beberibe, a set of Atlantic forest fragments of 31,634 hectares, we collected a pregnant leucistic female Tityus pusillus Pocock, 1893. In this female, the variegated pattern described for the species was a lighter color than normal. The animal produced 10 normal juveniles (not leucistics). In addition, we analyzed 1,164 specimens from 17 populations deposited in the CA-UFPE to verify the frequency of leucism; there were no scorpions with leucism within the analyzed populations. Thus, a break in variegated pattern, as with the leucism described in this study, may increase the mortality rate due to predation.
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