# P.Viatoris or P.Cavimanus?



## kraken (Aug 10, 2006)

Which do you guys think these are? They came in with cavimanus and imperators. The other cavimanus that are the same sizes as these,are black legged,black telson,and just a blush of red on the claws.These here are vibrant red clawed,red telson,and red legged.I seen them on several websites as Pandinus Viatoris.Here is a few pics of the possible viatoris


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## Ryan C. (Aug 10, 2006)

Hi again. I still think P. cavimanus. Take a look at this thread. 

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=71933


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## ScorpDude (Aug 10, 2006)

If that is a cavimanus its the weirdest cavimanus I've ever seen.

I don't know what it is but it certainly doesn't look like a cavimanus =\

Wait for g.carnell to post, he's like the forums authority on pandinus and heterometrus


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## kraken (Aug 10, 2006)

What throws me off is they look exactly like this
http://www.ub.ntnu.no/scorpion-files/p_viatoris3.jpg
I never got any redclaws with this much red,and the red legs. Even if they are cavimanus,they are real nice ones!


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## Insane Dan (Aug 10, 2006)

Kraken thats a nice scorp....i like the pandinus species...Im in kentucky as well the western part what part arer u in?


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## JSN (Aug 10, 2006)

whatever they are, they look badass, the claws look so much more exaggerated than the Cavimanus I've seen...


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## telow (Aug 11, 2006)

i got these in 2 years ago from tanzania mixed in with P.Cavimanus
and they are a bit different from each other thats for sure
but i like them alot and i dont normaly go away from buthids.

so Pandinus Viatoris is my vote bro.

good luck bro.


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## skinheaddave (Aug 11, 2006)

Anyone have a description for P.viatoris?  This would seem a more logical place to start than the comparison of pictures for a genus which is both polymorphic within species and indistinct between species when it comes to colouration and superficial form.

Cheers,
Dave


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## Michiel (Aug 11, 2006)

Well, 

It doesn't look like P.viatoris or P.cavimanus to me.....But like Dave said, the genusses are polymorphic and I am no expert in Pandinus.
GEEOOOOORGEEEEE! can you help us out here


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## P.jasonius (Nov 21, 2006)

There is a distinction between cavimanus and viatoris in that the claws are bit longer in viatoris.  see <pandinus.net>.  Its not a great site, but it illustrates this particular distinction.


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## EAD063 (Nov 22, 2006)

Due to the geographical location of P. viatoris I would say to completly rule that out if it came from Tanzania. If you goto the pictures section of the scorpion files you will see three completly different color forms of P. cavimanus. 

-EAD


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## Ythier (Nov 22, 2006)

IMO they're cavimanus for sure, there is a lot of variation in colors and sizes of this species, and some specimens can be very red, but P.viatoris doesn't have the broad and concave hands of cavimanus, that is obvious when you can compare both species. Unfortunately the comparison photos of Boris Striffler on his website (http://www.pandinus.net) doesn't seem to display, but here is two pics of one of my adult females P.viatoris, the difference with cavimanus' chelae is obvious (and I don't talk about males viatoris which have very thin and long hands).
Cheers
Eric


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## kahoy (Nov 22, 2006)

viatoris looks very red to me, claws, head, mesosoma, legs, etc. (even the substrate)

so heres what i found out,

viatoris = absolute red emperor
cavimarus = red claw emperor


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## Nazgul (Nov 22, 2006)

Hi,

I don´t think there´s any way to identify Pandinus spp by looking at pics (comparable to Euscorpius maybe). Also I´m having the suspicion a lot of Pandinus being sold as P. imperator or P. cavimanus are probably other Pandinus spp.

I´m not an expert in regards to Pandinus but as far as I remember the number of trichobothira on the chelae are an important character to distinguish between the spp and in most of the photos I´ve seen it´s impossible to tell the number of trichobothria of the particular specimens.

Colour means nothing .


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## fusion121 (Nov 22, 2006)

Nazgul said:


> Colour means nothing .


Unless its in a Kovarik key...?


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## G. Carnell (Nov 22, 2006)

hehe, kovarik smovarik!


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