This species was named Scorpio tamulus by J.C. Fabricius in 1798.[4] The species name was apparently derived from the occurrence in the country of the Tamil people of south-eastern India. It was later often referred to the genera Buthus or Mesobuthus, although it was already correctly placed in Hottentotta by A. A. Birula in 1914,[5] a referral that was confirmed again by F. Kovařík in 2007.[1] Nevertheless, the binomen Mesobuthus tamulus is traditionally widespread in the popular and scientific literature. R.I. Pocock (1900)[6] distinguished five subspecies according to coloration and distribution, but these are color-morphs (individuals with varying color) rather than subspecies.