Following the untimely death of Gary Polis, the B.A.S. has published Scorpions 2001, a collection of papers and articles about scorpions as a tribute. Details of the contents are available below.

Price 50 UKPounds (B.A.S. members 35 UKPounds) inclusive of postage and packing. Please send orders, with payment in sterling only please, to:

Peter Smithers
BAS Sales Manager,
Department of Biological Sciences,
University of Plymouth,
Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA,
United Kingdom

Scorpions 2001

In Memoriam Gary A. Polis

Edited by Victor Fet and Paul A. Selden

Published by the British Arachnological Society
August 2001

416 pages. ISBN 0 9500093 3 4

This is the first book to be published by the Society in its occasional publications series. Gary Polis was known and loved by many arachnologists and ecologists, particularly for his work on scorpions in Baja California. He was taken from us along with Japanese colleagues and students in a violent storm in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico, on the way to field work on 27th March 2000. This collection of papers is a tribute to his arachnological work.

Chapter titles:

  • Scorpions and their sister-group relationships
  • Phylogeny of the family Euscorpiidae Laurie, 1896: a major revision.
  • Substratum specialization and speciation in southern African scorpions: the Effect Hypothesis revisited.
  • Phylogeny of the "hirsutus" group of the genus Hadrurus Thorell, 1876 based on morphology and mitochondrial DNA (Scorpiones: Iuridae).
  • First record of a troglobitic ischnurid scorpion from Australasia (Scorpiones: Ischnuridae).
  • A new species of Compsobuthus Vachon, 1949 from central Oman (Scorpiones: Buthidae).
  • A new species of Compsobuthus Vachon, 1949 from Iran (Scorpiones: Buthidae).
  • A new genus and species of psammophilic scorpion from eastern Iran (Scorpiones: Buthidae).
  • Synonymy of some Uroplectes Peters, 1861 (Scorpiones: Buthidae).
  • A new species of Broteochactas Pocock, 1890 from Brazilian Amazonia (Scorpiones: Chactidae).
  • Two new species of Orobothriurus Maury, 1976, from Argentina and Peru, with comments on the systematics of the genus (Scorpiones: Bothriuridae).
  • Descriptions of two new species of Vaejovis C.L.Koch, 1836 from Mexico, with a redescription of Vaejovis pusillus Pocock, 1898 (Scorpiones: Vaejovidae).
  • Scorpions of Anatolia: ecological patterns. Mitochondrial DNA reveals a deep, divergent phylogeny in Centruroides exilicauda (Wood, 1863) (Scorpiones: Buthidae).
  • Scorpions of the Greater Antilles, with the description of a new troglobitic species (Scorpiones: Diplocentridae).
  • Scorpions of Slovenia: a faunistic and biogeographical survey.
  • Scorpions of Austria.
  • Euscorpius carpathicus (L., 1767) in Austria: phylogenetic position clarified by mitochondrial DNA analysis (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae).
  • Scorpions of Switzerland: summary of a faunistic survey.
  • New records of scorpions from the central and eastern Mediterranean area: biogeographical comments, with special reference to the Greek species.
  • First record of Mesobuthus eupeus (C.L.Koch) from central Anatolia (Scorpiones: Buthidae).
  • The northern boundary of scorpions in Central Asia.
  • Allometry of offspring size and number in scorpions.
  • Night vision in desert scorpions.
  • Electrophysiological properties of sensory neurons in peg sensilla of Centruroides vittatus (Say, 1821) (Scorpiones: Buthidae).
  • Patterns of allometry and asymmetry of body characters and spermatophores in Bothriurus bonariensis (C.L.Koch, 1842) (Scorpiones: Bothriuridae).
  • Asymmetries in the arterial system of some Australian Urodacus (Scorpiones: Urodacidae).
  • Scorpion reproductive strategies, potential and longevity: an ecomorphologist’s interpretation.
  • Is Tityus uruguayensis Borelli, 1901 really parthenogenetic?
  • A coumarin as a fluorescent compound in scorpion cuticle.
  • Development of the pectines in embryos of Paruroctonus mesaensis Stahnke, 1957 (Scorpiones: Vaejovidae).
  • The pioneering contributions of Francesco Redi and Holger Jacobaeus to the anatomy and reproductive biology of Euscorpius flavicaudis (De Geer, 1778) in the seventeenth century (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae).
  • Scorpions and spiders in mythology and folklore.