Abstract
The first molecular phylogeny is presented for four species of the scorpion genus Meso- buthus, based on DNA sequences of three gene fragments (two mitochondrial and one nuclear protein coding gene, ;1 kb). The inferred phylogeny based on a pooled maximum likelihood analysis revealed a clear deep splitting between the ''western clade'' consisting of M. gibbosus and M. cyprius (Greece/ Anatolia, Cyprus) and the ''eastern clade'' consisting of M. eupeus and M. caucasicus (Anatolia/Central Asia). The species M. caucasicus (recently placed in the genus Olivierus Farzanpay 1987) groups mon- ophyletically within Mesobuthus; thus, the genus Olivierus is synonymized here with Mesobuthus. Se- quences of M. eupeus and M. caucasicus sampled mainly from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are highly structured, indicating the possible existence of multiple species.
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