Phylogeography of the scorpion M. сaucasicus (Nordmann 1840) within the range of the genus Mesobuthus (Vachon 1950) (Scorpiones: Buthidae)
Currently, new habitats of scorpions of the genus Mesobuthus have been established on the territory of the republics of Armenia and Dagestan. The aim of the study was to determine the phylogenetic position of scorpions inhabiting the territories of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Dagestan. This study contributes to the development of ideas about the zoogeographic distribution of the scorpion fauna in the Palaearctic. In the course of the research, phylogenetic relationships of the species Mesobuthus caucasicus from the territory of the Republic of Dagestan and Armenia with other taxa of the genus Mesobuthus from the Lower Volga region and southern Kazakhstan were established. This work is a continuation of the authors’ research on the study of phylogeny, morphological features and distribution of scorpions of the genus Mesobuthus in the Caspian, North Turan and Scythian regions. For the first time, DNA sequences for the СОI gene of the species M. caucasicus and M. eupeus from the territory of the Republic of Dagestan (Russia) and the Republic of Armenia were introduced into the complex analysis. A dendrogram was constructed based on the decoded nucleotide sequences of representatives of the populations of the Saratov, Volgograd, Astrakhan regions, the Republic of Dagestan, the Republic of Armenia and South Kazakhstan. It was found that representatives of M. caucasicus from Dagestan are included in the Central Asian complex of species of the genus Mesobuthus, in particular, they are close to the species M. fuscus, M. intermedius, M. kreuzbergi. As for scorpions from the populations of the Saratov, Volgograd, and Astrakhan regions, at the moment of research they form a separate cluster, which confirms their isolation from the species M. caucasicus and M. eupeus.
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