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Specimens
Tissue samples
DNA sequences
Morphological characters
Photographs and digital images
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Progress Specimens: The REVSYS award has fully supported five field excursions and partly supported nine others. Six excursions, during which REVSYS project personnel collected additional material of relevance to the project, were funded off other grants. Collectively, this fieldwork has contributed almost 10,000 new specimens (principally Vaejovidae, but also other scorpion families and other arachnids and myriapods) and tissue samples for DNA isolation. In addition, previously collected but unsorted and databased material from Mexico has been sorted, identified, and is in the process of being databased, for incorporation into the project. Tissue samples: Approximately 650 vaejovid tissue samples, representing all ten vaejovid genera and 161 morphospecies (several presently undescribed) and subspecies, have been numbered, databased and processed for DNA isolation at the AMNH. These samples are distributed among the ten vaejovid genera as follows: Paravaejovis (1); Paruroctonus (29); Pseudouroctonus (12); Serradigitus (18); Smeringurus (5); Syntropis (1); Uroctonites (3); Uroctonus (4); Vaejovis (87); Vejovoidus (1). Only 52 described vaejovid species remain to be collected for DNA isolation: 7 Paruroctonus, 3 Pseudouroctonus, 8 Serradigitus, 1 Uroctonites, 1 Uroctonus, 32 Vaejovis. Specimen donations are welcomed. See following list of species still needed:
DNA sequences: 360 samples have been selected for sequencing from the 649. These samples represent all genera and species obtained to date, and several are represented by more than one population per species, to help determine the extent of intraspecific variation and test for possible cryptic species. The samples are further prioritised as follows: 238 priority 1 (one of each morphospecies or subspecies); 76 priority 2 (additional populations of species already sequenced); 46 priority 3 (further samples of species already sequenced). From the 360 samples selected for the analysis, 1680 fragments of sequence data have been obtained thus far (comprising 142 partial or complete 18S rDNA sequences, 293 partial or complete 28S rDNA sequences, 329 partial 16S rDNA sequences, 304 partial 12S rDNA sequences, 134 partial CO I sequences, and 34 partial Histone H3 sequences). The number of samples per priority per number of loci of genes (10) and sequences required and generated thus far is as follows: Priority Samples Fragments Sequences Completed % 1. 238 x 10 2380 1227 52 2. 76 x 10 760 258 34 3. 46 x 10 460 195 42 Total 360 x 10 3600 1680 47 These data represent 47% of the total quantity of sequences to be acquired from these samples (all 10 fragments for all 360 samples). At this point, we are approximately halfway towards our target of procuring and sequencing all described and estimated vaejovid genera (10) and species (300). In addition, we have obtained and sequenced samples of all necessary outgroup taxa for the project. Morphological characters: A working draft of ca. 290 morphological characters, for study across all vaejovid genera and species, has been compiled by co-PI David Sissom, in consultation with the other project personnel. PI Lorenzo Prendini has compiled a list and partial matrix of 140 characters pertinent to the basal relationships of Vaejovidae and the outgroup taxa selected. Project participants are currently scoring these characters and filling the entries in the data matrix. Photographs and digital images: Photographs of all vaejovid genera and ca. 60 species, totalling ca. 10 Gb of digital images, have been taken since the project commenced. This collection of images represents the largest and most detailed digital resource ever compiled for a single group of scorpions
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