A new species of Hottentotta Birula, 1908 from Afghanistan, with a note on the generic position of Mesobuthus songi Louren o, Qi et Zhu, 2005 (Scorpiones: Buthidae).

A new species of Hottentotta Birula, 1908 is described from the Kabul area in Afghanistan; this addition represents the fifth species of this genus confirmed for this Middle East country. It is a member of the “Indian group” of the genus (the first one recorded from Afghanistan), and is most closely related to Hottentotta jabalpurensis Kova ík, 2007, Hottentotta stockwelli Kova ík, 2007, Hottentotta tamulus (Fabricius, 1798) and Hottentotta songi (Louren o, Qi et Zhu, 2005) n. comb., which is herein demonstrated to be a member of Hottentotta and is thus formally transferred to this genus.