North America

Southwestern U.S.A (California, Arizona, New Mexico): A seven day trip (May 6-12, 2008) through the desert communities of the American southwest. Zach Valois and Brent E. Hendrixson sampled portions of southeastern California, southern Nevada, and the northern half of Arizona. They flew into Las Vegas from Salt Lake City, Utah and Raleigh, North Carolina. From Las Vegas over 1700 miles were traveled and sampled. Between blacklighting for scorpions till late in the night and searching for tarantulas at the crack of dawn, one could only find a few decent hours to sleep in the field. But the trip was fairly successful, over fifty scorpions were collected, representing six genera and at least 11 species—including Hadrurus obscurus in the eastern extent of its range. An additional 40+ specimens of the Theraphosid genus, Aphonopelma were collected. The material collected possibly representing six or more species of tarantula. Brent E. Hendrixson is beginning to investigate systematics and evolutionary pathways of North American Theraphosidae. We were able to collect at the type localities and points within the main distribution of the tarantulas currently recognized within the dwarf complex. An interesting find was Aphonopelma joshua, as it is endemic to Joshua Tree National Park. Also, some populations of Hadrurus obscurus and H. spadix that were found in some considerably sandy areas, as oppose to rocky outcrops and escarpments in which these species are most commonly found.

Southeastern U.S.A (Mississippi, Louisiana): 3 days (2–5 May, 2008), funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Volunteer Kari J. McWest and his 10-year-old daughter, Malea, traveled to Natchez and Washington, MS, for a family reunion. Nearby is the Tunica Hills ecoregion of extreme southwestern Mississippi and adjacent Louisiana. Vaejovis carolinianus has been reported from this very small and biologically diverse area of loess hills, bluffs, and ravines on the east side of the Mississippi River between Natchez, MS, and St. Francisville, LA. The nearest records are about 200 miles to the east and northeast. Three specimens of Vaejovis carolinianus were collected for the REVSYS Vaejovidae grant under logs and in rotted wood in mixed hardwood forest where the soils are of ancient windblown silts (loess); there are no rocks or rocky roadcuts which are typical habitats for the species throughout most of its range.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Arizona, Nevada): 7 days (16–22 April, 2008), funded by the NSF-REVSYS grant. Zach Valois and Kelsey Neeley spent a week travelling more than two thousand miles through pine forests, Mojave scrub and Sonoran desert in Arizona and Nevada collecting scorpions for the REVSYS project. More than seventy specimens, representing five genera, were collected. The most important collections made during this trip included a new species in the Vaejovis vorhiesi group, tissue samples of Paruroctonus ammonastes for DNA isolation, and topotype samples of Smeringurus mesaensis.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Utah): Throughout 2007, Zach Valois made several trips, partially funded by the NSF-REVSYS grant, to the Grand and Emery counties, Utah. Over two thousand miles were travelled throughout Utah’s Colorado Plateau desert during the course of these trips, resulting in more than 130 specimens, representing four genera and six species, among them important samples of Vaejovis jonesi.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Arizona, New Mexico): 4 days (10–13 October 2007), Kari J. McWest and Manny Rubio. REVSYS Volunteer Kari McWest traveled to the "bootheel" of New Mexico and Cochise County, Arizona. His mission was to recover specimens of two undescribed species from the mountains in that region and, with Manny Rubio, to investigate the unsampled Mule Mountains at Bisbee, AZ in hopes of finding more records for Vaejovis vorhiesi and its relatives. Kari flew into El Paso and rented a car; luckily, the car was not the Chevy Cavalier as promised, but an HHR which has much higher ground clearance and roomier, and at the same rate even though it was an upgrade. In New Mexico, Kari sampled in the Florida and Little Florida mountains near Deming, the Big Hatchet Mountains, and Granite Gap and Antelope Pass in the Peloncillo Mountains. The scorpions collected here include a single specimen of the much needed undescribed species (Big Hatchets), Vaejovis coahuilae, Centruroides sculpturatus, and Superstitionia donensis. Kari arranged to meet naturalist and photographer, Manny Rubio, in Bisbee. They sampled in the Mule Mountains in which they found several Centruroides sculpturatus, which was the only reported species in the Mules, and a single female specimen similar to Vaejovis vorhiesi. On the way back to El Paso, Kari collected numerous specimens of very small Vaejovis spinigerus on the highway pavement, noticing numerous fluorescent spots on the road which were obviously "roadkill scorpions". Granite Gap and Antelope Pass were sampled again in attempts to find an undescribed species and specimens of Serradigitus agilis. An undetermined Aphonopelma sp. was collected near Animas, NM, for Dr. Brent Hendrixson.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Arizona): 3 days (5–7 October, 2007), funded by the NSF-REVSYS grant. Zach Valois and Kelsey Neeley travelled ca. 1,200 miles through central and northern Arizona, sampling biotic communities from the lower Colorado plateau desert, upper and lower Sonoran, chaparral, and petran montane coniferous forest. More than fifty scorpion specimens, representing three genera and five species, were collected.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Nevada): 2 days (1–2 September, 2007), partially funded by the NSF-REVSYS grant. Zach Valois and Kelsey Neeley traveled over 1,500 miles to collect in the Hawthorne/Walker Lake area of Mineral Co., Nevada, a region consisting of Lahontan Salt Shrub basin, Tonopah basin, and sagebrush foothills. More than sixty scorpion specimens, representing four genera and six species, were collected. Among these species was Paruroctonus simulatus, an important species for the REVSYS project. On route back to Utah, Zach and Kelsey spent several more days collecting in other parts of Nevada and southern Utah, obtaining an additional fifty scorpion specimens.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Atascosa Mountains, Santa Cruz County, AZ): 1 day (14 September, 2007), funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Naturalists Jim Bockowski, Donna Zeidel and Bill Schol accompanied Manny Rubio (zoologist living in Tucson) to search for Serradigitus agilis at the type locality. The description of the type locality is ambiguous and indefinite so the day was spent looking for suitable habitat that would be hunted with black-lights after dark. Fourteen potential sites (rock-faced road cuts with numerous, small, vertical fissures) were selected. No sites with a northern exposure were identified along the selected four mile stretch of road. Black-lighting (19h40-21h30) yielded a dozen specimens from five sites. All S. agilis were located from one to four meters above the ground on open, vertical faces; none were observed in habitat under canopy. Their diminutive size and quickness to retreat into small cracks made capturing S. agilis problematic; some escaped and others were crushed. A few likely locations, devoid of S. agilis, were inhabited by Centruroides exilicauda. One Pseudouroctonus apacheanus was found and appears to be a western range extension. A single Diplocentrus spitzeri was located among scree at the base of a S. agilis site. Vaejovis spinigerus were abundant (more than 40 specimens) along the ground litter in open and canopied places at all the sites searched; several were collected.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Arizona, California, New Mexico): 2 weeks (3-17 September, 2007), funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Lorenzo Prendini and Jeremy Huff flew to El Paso, Texas, and traveled ca. 6,800 km, across the Chihuahua, Sonora and Mojave deserts, the Mogollon Rim, the Sierra Nevada, and the Central Valley of California, to San Francisco, before returning to New York. The aim of this trip was to collect tissue samples and morphological vouchers of solifuges, vaejovid, iurid and superstitioniid scorpions for two NSF-funded projects on solifuge and scorpion systematics. The first half of the expedition surveyed pine-oak forest habitats in the ‘Sky Islands’ of New Mexico and Arizona for small brown vaejovid scorpions of the Vaejovis vorhiesi group, which includes many short-range endemics. The second half of the trip focused on collecting endemic vaejovid, iurid and superstitioniid scorpions at lower elevations in the Sonora and Mojave deserts and the Central Valley of California. Although attempts to collect Paruroctonus ammonastes and Vaejovis spicatus near their type localities were unsuccessful, Prendini and Huff successfully collected Hadrurus obscurus at three places, including the type locality of this species in the Panoche Valley, and obtained many other interesting species in the genera Paruroctonus, Serradigitus, and Vaejovis. More than 1,000 specimens were collected in the course of this trip, including 28 scorpion species in eight genera and four families, among them a new species of Paruroctonus and several new species in the Vaejovis vorhiesi group. Solifuge collecting was less successful, with only a few eremobatids encountered along the way.

Southwestern U.S.A. (New Mexico, Texas): Several days (September, 2007), funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. REVSYS Volunteer Kari J. McWest travelled along Route 66 to the border area of New Mexico and Texas in search of the uncommon Paruroctonus pecos. Kari and Hunter Burrell were accompanied by Kara McWest-Torres, Kari's sister from Florida. A healthy population of Paruroctonus pecos was found along with P. utahensis, Vaejovis russelli, and Centruroides vittatus.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Arizona, Utah): 10 days (6–16 August, 2007), funded by the NSF REVSYS Vaejovidae grant. The goal of the trip, undertaken by Dr W. David Sissom, Tom Anton, and Gary Casper, was to accumulate additional samples of vaejovids for DNA sequencing and to expand the known geographical distributions of several taxa. David left from Amarillo, Texas around noon and collected Gary and Tom at the airport in Albuquerque, NM. By early evening, moderate to heavy rainfall in northwestern New Mexico eliminated the possibility of collecting that night. After staying at a hotel in Farmington, NM, the team pushed on to Moab, UT, to collect. Two days and nights in the desert habitats at Dead Horse State Park and vicinity yielded Paruroctonus boreus, P. utahensis, Vaejovis confusus, and Serradigitus wupatkiensis. One of the highlights was the finding of a female S. wupatkiensis carrying first instar offspring. After leaving southern Utah, the team headed toward the Flagstaff area in AZ. At various locations in the vicinity of Flagstaff, they found essentially the same species as at Moab, with the addition of an iurid scorpion, Hadrurus spadix. A daytime search for topotypes of V. lapidicola and a potential new species in the vorhiesi group were unsuccessful. The third leg of the trip took the team to the Black Mountains along the western edge of north-central Arizona. On the first night, they collected in the northern part of the range along Highway 68. After an inauspicious start, they collected specimens of Vaejovis confusus, V. spinigerus, V. hirsuticauda, Serradigitus joshuaensis, S. subtilimanus, and an iurid Hadrurus arizonensis. The second night, in the southern part of the range in the vicinity of Sitgreaves Pass, the team collected most of the species at the preceding location, but also found H. spadix. On route back to Kingman they stopped in the desert flats and found several H. arizonensis and V. confusus. The final destination for collecting was Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Despite sampling for two consective nights, surface activity and abundance were low. Collecting along the rock walls of the White House trail yielded only Serradigitus wupatkiensis. The second night’s collecting in sandy habitats on the south rim produced only Paruroctonus utahensis. After dropping Gary and Tom off in Albuquerque, an unsuccessful attempt was made to secure specimens of Paruroctonus pecos at the New Mexico/Texas state line, where the species had previously been found.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico): 2 weeks (19 July–3 August, 2007), funded by the NSF REVSYS Vaejovidae grant. Jeremy Huff traveled to San Antonio, Texas, to deliver two presentations at the 2nd annual ArachnoCon meetings presented by Arachnoboards.com. In San Antonio a specimen of Pseudouroctonus reddelli was collected along with several Centruroides vittatus. Huff then traveled to Tucson, Arizona, and collected in southwestern New Mexico and eastern Arizona. Approximately 100 specimens, including Pseudouroctonus apacheanus, two species in the Vaejovis vorhesi complex, and new records for Vaejovis russelli, were collected. Unfortunately, due to the timing of ArachnoCon, the moon was full and severe thunderstorms greatly reduced the collecting success.

Central Mexico (Morelos, Guanajuato): 3 days (1–3 July, 2007), funded by a Theodore Roosevelt Grant from the AMNH. AMNH Ph.D. student Edmundo González and volunteer Ofelia Delgado traveled from the Distrito Federal towards Morelos state, through the Derrame del Chichinautzin mountain range, covered by secondary forest and some areas of primary pine-oak forest, in search of a new Vaejovis species in the mexicanus group. They failed to find the species, and instead collected Vaejovis mexicanus smithi and a new species in the eusthenura group. In a second short trip, González and Delgado traveled to Cuerámaro, Guanajuato, an area dominated by ‘Bajio type’ vegetation, comprising Acacia and thorn bushes, where they collected an undescribed solifuge species.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Arizona, New Mexico): Several days (June, 2007), funded by the American Tarantula Society (ATS). REVSYS Volunteer Kari J. McWest and his children Hunter Burrell and Malea McWest travelled to the 10th Annual American Tarantula Society Conference in Phoenix, AZ. Accompanied by members of the ATS, they collected Serradigitus wupatkiensis near the type locality, several "forms" of Vaejovis spinigerus, V. confusus, V. aff. paysonensis, Hadrurus arizonensis and Centruroides sculpturatus. On the return trip, they visited several forested mountains in search of Vaejovis vorhiesi relatives and were largely unsuccessful, with the exception of two specimens collected near the Arizona/New Mexico border.

Southwestern U.S.A. (Arizona, California): 3 days (20–23 October, 2006), funded by the NSF-REVSYS grant. During a trip to the AMNH Southwestern Research Station in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona, Ph.D. student Edmundo Gonzalez collected several specimens of Vaejovis feti. All specimens were collected during the day rolling logs and rocks. Two days later, Gonzalez joined REVSYS collaborator, Warren E. Savary and E. Gonzalez for two nights of collecting in the grassland of Panoche hills, San Benito Co., California, which yielded specimens of Serradigitus gertschi striatus and Vaejovis confusus.

U.S.A. (California, Nevada): 4 nights (20, 22–24 August 2006), funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Jeremy Huff spent four nights collecting scorpions in CA and NV. Warren Savary joined Jeremy on August 20 for a field trip to northern Napa County, CA. Four vaejovid scorpion genera were collected: Paruroctonus, Pseudouroctonus, Serradigitus and Uroctonus. Jeremy then collected one iurid genus and three vaejovid genera near Reno, NV, on August 22: Hadrurus, Paruroctonus and Vaejovis. The following night, Jeremy collected three genera in the Hawthorne/Walker Lake area: Hadrurus, Paruroctonus and Vaejovis. The final night, Jeremy collected three vaejovid genera on Panoche Road in Fresno County: Paruroctonus, Serradigitus and Vaejovis. In total, over 280 specimens were collected including two important species for the REVSYS Vaejovidae project: Paruroctonus variabilis (type locality) and Pseudouroctonus iviei.

México (Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas): 10 days (14–25 August, 2006) partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. This trip was also conducted by two teams. W. David Sissom drove south from Texas with Thomas Anton, Vanessa Torti, and Gary Casper, while Oscar Francke drove north with Jesus Ballesteros, Hector Montaño and Carlos Santibañez. The two teams met at the same spot where they had separated two weeks earlier after the rains flooded their campground. This time, they successfully collected a Vaejovis species close to V. tesselatus, another close to V. bilineatus, and a Diplocentrus close to D. ferrugineus. The teams then traveled into the Aramberi region, a desert area known for endemic cacti, where they expected to find a member of the Vaejovis nitidulus group, but failed to do so. Traveling west to Matehuala and the Real del Catorce region, the teams collected four unidentified species of Vaejovis belonging to different groups. They then switched back east and into San Luis Potosí. Near Villa de Allende, one team was unsuccessful in securing Vaejovis tesselatus from its type locality, while the other team collected Vaejovis mitchelli, an important species for the molecular component of the project, near Cerritos. The following night, near Cardenas, San Luis Potosí, the teams collected what appears to be a new species close to Vaejovis pococki and, just south of Rayon, what may be a new species close to Vaejovis mitchelli. The next day, moving north near San Jose de Las Palmas, the teams collected more than 120 Vaejovis aff. bilineatus in about half-an-hour of turning rocks in desert scrub! However, collecting in an oak forest, later that afternoon, yielded nothing. The teams camped at Puerto Santa Catarina that night and collected two species of Diplocentrus and three species of Vaejovis, including what appears to be a new species near Vaejovis intermedius. Collecting was truncated that evening by rain, and departure the next morning delayed while tents and sleeping bags dried in the sun. While waiting, Oscar Francke taught the rest of the team how to dig up Diplocentrus from their burrows. The following night, the teams camped at El Salto, south of Jaumave, Tamaulipas, and collected a Vaejovis near V. russelli (punctipalpi group) and another near V. sprousei (mexicanus group). Before the teams parted, a final effort was made to obtain Vaejovis platnicki, which was successfully collected by rolling rocks. Both teams collected further on the return leg of their trips, adding to knowledge of the geographical distributions of several scorpion species.

México (Coahuila): 10 days (17–28 July, 2006), partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. This trip was conducted by two teams: Team 1 Trip, Team 2 Trip. W. David Sissom traveled south from Texas with Brent Hendrixson, Kari McWest and Steven Grant, while Osar Francke traveled north from Mexico City with Milagros Cordova, Abigail Jaimes, Jesus Ballesteros and Edmundo Gonzalez (visiting Mexico from New York). The first week, spent in Coahuila, was hot and dry, and yielded several new and interesting scorpion species. The two teams met in Cuatro Cienegas de Carranza, a desert oasis famous for its desert pupfish populations as well as other endemics (including scorpions). Each night, the groups would split into two or three teams, covering more habitats and localities, and increasing the diversity of the catch. In Cuatro Cienegas, they failed to collect two of the target species (Vaejovis minckleyi and Paruroctonus coahuilanus), although a large quantity of other interesting material was collected. Vaejovis minckleyi, or a very close relative, was collected a few nights later at a different location in western Coahuila. The groups then moved south to Parras, where one team collected in the flats and found little besides a good series of Paruroctonus gracilior, while the other traveled into the mountains and collected several interesting species, including a possible new Vaejovis related to V. rubrimanus and a new Diplocentrus. The teams then traveled into the mountains in southeastern Coahuila and camped at 2,700 m, where the collecting was unproductive, before moving into Nuevo Leon, near Monterrey, where Vaejovis rubrimanus and Diplocentrus colwelli were collected at their type localities. Moving south in Nuevo Leon, the teams ran into a tropical depression and attempted to fight-off and out-run the rain for three days and nights unsuccessfully. The rain was intermittent during the first two nights, enabling them to collect with limited success. A vaejovid that appears to be Vaejovis tesselatus was collected at several localities. On the third night, the rain was so persistent and heavy, that no collecting was possible. The two team leaders agreed to terminate the trip a few days early due to the unfavorable weather conditions. On the way home, Francke’s team collected additional samples of interesting scorpions that will help to fill gaps in their known distributions.

México (Sonora, Chihuahua): 11 days (21 June - 4 July, 2006), funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Edmundo González and Pablo Berea traveled ca. 4,000 km through the deserts of central and western Sonora, and along the Sierra Madre Occidental, crossing the mountains into Chihuahua, close to the boundary between the two states. Collections were made in diverse habitats including Sonoran desert, pine-oak forest, and tropical deciduous forest, at elevations from 30–2,200 m. More than 350 scorpions, representing 16 species, seven genera and five families, as well as 50 solifuges, amblypygids, uropygids and myriapods, were collected. Highlights of the trip included Vaejovis pequeno, collected in several habitats, including desert, tropical deciduous forest and oak forest; V. mauryi; three species of Serradigitus; and at least two species of Diplocentrus that may represent new records of described species. Several unusual Centruroides were also collected that may represent new species.

México (Oaxaca): 10 days (19–30 June, 2006), partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Oscar F. Francke, Hector Montaño, Carlos Santibáñez, Alejandro Valdez, and Gabriel Villegas participated in this trip, the main targets for which were several new and rare species of Vaejovis from the Sierra Madre Occidental in south-central Oaxaca. The team first traveled to Oaxaca City to pick up Carlos Santibañez, who lives there, and had identified some potential new areas and new taxa for collection. The first night yielded one of the target species, Vaejovis nigrofemoratus, close to Oaxaca. The following nights, the team camped and collected in the mountains southwest of Miahuatlán, where good series of two undescribed vaejovid species were collected: a small Vaejovis with a subaculear spine, and a member of the Vaejovis occidentalis complex. Several species of Centruroides (Buthidae) and Diplocentrus (Diplocentridae), some of which are probably new, were also collected. The team then crossed a rough part of the Sierra between Miahuatlan and Juquila, where they collected Centruroides but no vaejovids. Travelling from Juquila to Oaxaca, they again collected the target vaejovid species and what appear to be another two new species of Vaejovis, one in the mexicanus group and the other in the occidentalis complex. In Oaxaca, they dropped Carlos off before returning to Mexico City via Huajapan de Leon, and on the last leg of the trip collected more interesting scorpions, including a new species related to Vaejovis franckei.

México (Pacific coast): 2 weeks (21 May–2 June, 2006), partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Oscar F. Francke, Jesus Ballesteros, Hector Montaño, and Alejandro Valdez traveled south from Mexico City to the state of Guerrero, where they collected in diverse habitats from deciduous tropical scrub near sea level to pine forests at 2,200 m. Conditions where very dry and collecting was not a good as hoped. Centruroides (Buthidae) and a few Vaejovis (Vaejovidae) were collected nonetheless. This part of the trip specifically targeted a small coastal vaejovid, Vaejovis acapulco (and its junior synonym Vaejovis zihuatanejensis) but unfortunately failed to find them, necessitating a future visit after it has rained in the region. From Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, the team traveled northwest along the coast into Michoacan and Colima, which were equally dry and unproductive. During the course of three days, they attended the meetings of the Mexican Entomological Society in Manzanillo, Colima, all presented papers at a Lacandonian Arachnids Symposium: Francke on the scorpions; Ballesteros on a new species of vinegaroon (Uropygi); Montaño on a new palpigrade; and Valdez on spiders. The original plan was to continue north along the coast to Jalisco and Nayarit after the meetings but, given the prevailing drought, the team decided instead to travel inland into Michoacán, Jalisco, Guanajuato and Queretaro. The rains had started in those states and collecting was more successful. Several rare taxa were obtained including Vaejovis dugesi and Vaejovis pococki, along with a possible new species of the Vaejovis mexicanus group from Jalisco.

México (Veracruz: Xalapa Region): 3 days (6–9 May, 2006), partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Dr Oscar Francke and Jesus Ballesteros (undergraduate, Instituto Politecnico Nacional) travelled east from Mexico City, stopping to collect at the type locality of Vaejovis maculosus, where samples were obtained samples for DNA isolation. In the city of Xalapa, Francke and Ballesteros were joined by Mr. Pablo Berea, with whom they collected during the following two days in parched dry semi-deciduous scrub forest. Despite failing to confirm a 1932 record of Vaejovis intrepidus for the region (this species is known to inhabit along the Pacific coast of Mexico in the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco), two species of Diplocentrus and two species of Centruroides were collected.

México (Hidalgo, Queretaro: Huasteca Hidalguense Region): 3 days (27–30 April, 2006), partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Dr Oscar Francke, Gabriel Villegas (Ph.D. student, IBUNAM), Ricardo Paredes (M.S. student, IBUNAM) and Alejandro Valdez (undergraduate, IBUNAM) travelled approximately 985 km, the Mexican status of San Luis Potosí, Querétaro and Hidalgo. Collections were made at altitudes ranging 100-2300 m in semidesert and tropical forest. More than 70 scorpion specimens, in three genera and four species, were collected, including two species of the Vaejovis nitidulus complex required for DNA analysis, and previously known from a only few specimens each. Adequate samples of these taxa were secured, in addition to samples of a rarely collected species of Centruroides.

México (Guanajuato: Sierra de los Agustinos): 3 days (20–23 March, 2006), partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Dr Oscar Francke, Gabriel Villegas (Ph.D. student, IBUNAM), Hector Montaño and Alejandro Valdez (undergraduates, IBUNAM), and Carlos Santibáñez (undergraduate, Instituto Tecnológico del Valle de Oaxaca) travelled ca. 600 km through the Mexican states of Guanajuato and Michoacan in altitudes ranging 2000 to 2500 m. The dominant vegetation during the trip included pine and oak-dry forest. Approximately 90 specimens, including three genera and four species of scorpions, were collected. Of particular interested were small isolated populations of the Vaejovis pusillus group on various mountain-tops which apparently show the same inselberg pattern of differentiation observed in their northern relatives of the Vaejovis vorhiesi complex.

México (Oaxaca): 6 days (1–5 December, 2005), partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. Dr. Oscar Francke, accompanied by Hector Montaño and Alejandro Valdez (undergraduate students at IBUNAM), and Carlos Santibañez (undergraduate, Instituto Tecnológico del Valle de Oaxaca) collected in Oaxaca. Although the weather was too cold in the mountains for nite collecting with black-lights, daytime rock-rolling and log-peeling revealed several interesting scorpions and a possible new species of palpigrade.

México (Puebla, Oaxaca): 6 days (3–11 November, 2005), partially funded by the NSF REVSYS grant. En route to the First World Diversitas in Oaxaca City, Dr. Oscar Francke, Milagros Córdova and Abigail Jaimes (undergraduates at the Universidad Autónoma de Morelos), and Griselda Montiel-Parra (technician at the Mexican National Acarology Collection), collected for three days in Puebla and northern Oaxaca. After the meetings they were joined by Carlos Santibañez (undergraduate, Instituto Tecnológico del Valle de Oaxaca) for another three days of collecting in the mountains of northern Oaxaca. Several new and rare species of Vaejovis and Diplocentrus were collected.

Southwestern U.S.A. (southern California, Nevada): 10 days (29 August–7 September, 2005), funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. Lorenzo Prendini and Randy Mercurio flew to San Diego, California, and traveled ca. 3,700 km, via the Anza-Borrego and Mojave deserts, to Death Valley National Park, the Amargosa desert (Nevada) and the Sierra Nevada, returning to New York from Oakland, California. The aim of this trip was to collect tissue samples and morphological vouchers of vaejovid and iurid scorpions for Prendini’s projects on vaejovid phylogeny and DNA barcoding. The expedition surveyed habitats ranging from Sonoran desert, Mojave desert, Great Basin, chaparral, to oak and pine woodland, at elevations from below sea level (Salton Sea) to > 2,200 m (Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest). More than 600 specimens were collected, including 30 scorpion species in nine genera and three families, among them several species endemic to Death Valley and the Sierra Nevada.

México (southern Veracruz, Chiapas): 2 weeks (26 August–9 September, 2005), largely funded by the Instituto de Ecología, UNAM, with additional support from NSF REVSYS project. REVSYS collaborator, Dr Oscar Francke, accompanied by undergraduate students Milagros Córdova and Abigail Jaimes (undergraduate students from Universidad Autónoma de Morelos) and Alejandro Valdez and Hector Montaño (undergraduate students from the Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM), conducted another trip to survey arachnids at the Lacandona Forest Biosphere Reserve, digressing to visit other localities along the way. Eleven orders of living arachnids were collected during the trip! Buthids are the most abundant scorpions in this part of Mexico, and several species from various groups were collected, including rare (and possibly new) species in the Centruroides thorelli complex. At least one more new diplocentrid was collected at the La Sepultura Biosphere Reserve. The rediscovery of an undescribed species of Vaejovis in the eusthenura group, previously known a single specimen, was also of particular interest.

Northern México (Durango, Chihuahua): 2 weeks (29 July–15 August, 2005), funded by the NSF REVSYS project. This expedition was undertaken by two teams. Dr W. David Sissom (West Texas A&

Scorpion Systematics Research Group