Background: Scorpions are one of the most medically important arthropods in Iran including Northwestern parts that cause serious public health problems and sometimes can be fatal. There are more Than 2000 species of scorpions in the world and from Iran 66 species belonging to Families of Buthidae, Scorpionidae and Hemiscorpidae have been reported.In
Northwest of Iran Including Ardabil, West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan five scorpion species including Mesobuthus eupeus, Mesobuthus caucasicus, Androctonus crassicauda and Hottentotta saulcyi have been identified.
Mesobuthus eupeus has wide distribution range in Iran and have five morphologically distinct
subspecies in Iran:
Mesobuthus eupeus eupeus,
Mesobuthus eupeus phillippovitschi,
Mesobuthus eupeus thersites,
Mesobuthus eupeus afghanus and
Mesobuthus eupeus kermanesis. In northwest of Iran there is no information about it. This study was conducted to determine the
subspecies of this scorpion.Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the
subspecies of M. eupeus in northwest of Iran.Materials and Methods: Scorpion collection was carried out using Rock rolling and Ultra Violet methods in West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan and Ardabil Provinces, all in Northwest part of Iran, from June to September 2015 and 2016. The specimens then were identified to
subspecies level using morphological characteristics.Results: Totally 376 specimens of Mesobutus eupeus (177males and 199 females) were collected and identified as M.e eupeus (98.4%) and M.e. phillippovitschi (1.6%) Fig (1).M.e.phillippovitschi was found only in northern parts including borderlines with Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan countries that has limited distribution area but M.e.eupeus was collected in all studied counties except for border lines with foreign countries.Conclusion:There are two
subspecies of M. eupeus from
Northwest of Iran including M.e.eupeus and M.e. phillippovitschi and are varies in the color pattern of carapace and mesosoma that the second one is more prevalent and is distributed nearly in all part of studied area and regarded as Most medically important scorpion species in Northwest part of Iran, it is necessary for Antivenom production that these Morphological variation should be regarded