Uroctonus mordax Thorell, 1876a: 11; Mann, 1876: 212; Thorell, 1876b: 196-198; Karsch, 1879b: 102-103; Pocock, 1893: 330, pl. XIV, fig. 11; Thorell, 1893: 374; Kraepelin, 1894: 194 (part); Kraepelin, 1899: 182; Banks, 1900a: 424; Kraepelin, 1901: 274; Pocock, 1902: 14, pl. IV, fig. 2, 2a-f; Banks, 1904: 365; Borelli, 1909: 224; Banks, 1910: 186, 188, fig. 81e; Comstock, 1912: 30, fig. 35; Cox, 1921: 13; Pavlovsky, 1925: 151; Ewing, 1928: 7, 15; Hoffmann, 1931: 402-403; Werner, 1934: 283-284; Comstock, 1940: 30, fig. 35; Mello-Leitão, 1945: 128; Gertsch & Allred, 1965: 4; Parrish, 1966: 12-13; Díaz Najera, 1970: 116; Bücherl, 1971: 329; Gertsch & Soleglad, 1972: 551, 565, 568-573, fig. 1-9, 19, 28, 29, 40-51, 113-115, 119, 120, 133, 134; Soleglad, 1973b: 353; Stahnke, 1974: 130; Vachon, 1974: fig. 16(1), 78, 137; Francke, 1976b: 254-260; Williams, 1976: 2; Williams, 1986b: 359; Crawford, 1990: 258-259; Williams & Savary, 1991: 274, 284, fig. 2, 6, 8, 14, 20; Kovarík, 1998: 145; Sissom, 2000:528-529; Soleglad & Fet, 2003b: 6, fig. 7; Soleglad & Fet, 2004: 87; Soleglad & Fet, 2003a: 160.
Uroctonus mordax canaliculatus: Moritz & Fischer, 1980: 311..
Vejovis yosemitensis Ewing, 1928: 11, pl. II, fig. 3 (synonymized by Gertsch & Soleglad, 1972: 568).
Uroctonus mordax canaliculatus Karsch, 1879b: 103 (synonymized by Sissom, 2000: 529).
Uroctonus mordax mordax: Hjelle, 1972: 5, 12-19, fig. 1-3, 7-9, 30, 32-36, 50, 52; Sissom, 2000:529; Soleglad & Fet, 2004: 88, figs. 1, 3, 6, 12, 16, 18, 23, 26, 28, 32, Table I; Soleglad & Fet, 2003a: 8, figs, 9, 81, 102.

HOLOTYPE:  Uroctonus mordax Thorell Lectotype (designated by Hjelle, 1972: 15): F (NRS 59b), San Francisco, California, USA
Vejovis yosemitensis Ewing Holotype: M (USNM), Yosemite Falls, Yosemite Valley, California, USA.
Uroctonus mordax canaliculatus Karsch Holotype: M (ZMB-15), California, USA.

Original description:
Uroctonus mordax Thorell, 1876a: 11.

SUBSEQUENT ACCOUNTS:

DISTRIBUTION:  NORTH AMERICA. USA (California, Oregon, Washington).

PUBLISHED RECORds:  

nOTES:  In the NRS collection, in the same vial as the lectotype are two males (one subadult, one juvenile). Hjelle (1972) was not convinced that these specimens were collected in San Francisco with the lectotype, but they were mentioned by Thorell (1877: 198) in his longer description of the species. In both descriptions, Thorell (1876, 1877) gives the pectinal tooth count for the species as 8-10; since the lectotype has a count of 8/9, it seems likely that all three specimens were used in the original description. Hence, the two male specimens should be regarded as paralectotypes.
The type specimen of U. mordax canaliculatus has been examined; it is conspecific with U. mordax mordax.
Soleglad & Fet (2004) attributed a record of U. mordax from Utah to Sissom (2000: 528-529). The record is inaccurate, being based on older literature which considered Anuroctonus a junior synonym of Uroctonus. The record was mistakenly inserted into the distributional statement by a coauthor of the scorpion catalog and went to press without Sissom's knowledge.