Buthus SCORPIONS IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA. USING MULTILOCUS DNA TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THEIR DIVERSITY

STUDENT SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

The Iberian Peninsula is an area of high biological diversity, linked to its complex past geological and climatic history. Iberia has long been an active study area on the evolutionary history of organisms, although less efforts have been devoted to invertebrates. We aimed at resolving the phylogeny and phylogeographic history of Buthus scorpions in the Iberian Peninsula, where four species have been described. We used a broad sampling of Iberia to map the genus genetic diversity and we used a multilocus approach, including novel designed anonymous nuclear markers, to try to understand their relationship to the more diverse Maghreb area. We hope that using molecular species delimitation will help to better understand the systematics of a morphologically conserved genus.

Pedro Sousa is graduated in Biology and holds a MSc in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. Currently, Pedro is a fifth year PhD Student attending the BIODIV program at the University of Porto. Working under the supervision of Dr. James Harris (CIBIO-InBIO), Prof. Miquel Arnedo (Universitat de Barcelona) and Prof. Paulo Célio Alves (CIBIO-InBIO), Pedro is part of CIBIO-InBIO’s CONGEN and AP groups. Pedro's interests focus on evolution, phylogeography and systematics, and in using those tools to better understand the diversifing patterns of Arachnids.

Image credits: Pedro Sousa