# Parabuthus schlechteri



## Olsin (Jun 28, 2012)

Hey guys .. I believe my couple are both instar 7 although it's been hard to keep track of their moults as they have always moulted underground and i'm not to keen about digging them out.....until today! .. The only time i've been able to see old excuviae is when they've moulted close to the glass and i've been able to pick it up on UV

My question is .. Does anyone know at what instar these guys become adult..I'm thinking the male is adult and the female sub adult although thats based on her being adult at instar 8 and me being right about them being instar 7 now. I've trawled around trying to find this info but can't pin it down.

Can anyone help me 

*Male*




*Female*

Reactions: Like 1


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## snippy (Jun 28, 2012)

Hi Brian 

Usually it's 7 for males, 8 for females. 
How about some pictures with a measuring tape or something to compare them to?

But judging from the habitus, they look pretty much adult to me.

Regards
Finn


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## Olsin (Jun 28, 2012)

Hi Finn 
Unfortunately that was easier said than done..i guess being messed around twice in one day was to much for them. Both adopted this position as soon as i put them down and wouldn't chill out, darting all over the place. I was lucky to get this pic before he made a dash for freedom

This is the male. Check out his venom loaded aculeus...Anyway, they are both approx 3 cm's from chelicerae to the first segment of the metasoma with the female being slightly bulkier built. If they were stretched out i would approximate their length at about 7 cm's


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## snippy (Jun 28, 2012)

7cm are a bit on the short side for a female. Did you just try to mate them? If so what happened. Sometimes that is the best way to tell 

Regards
Finn


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## Olsin (Jun 28, 2012)

No, i haven't tried to mate them Finn because as i mentioned earlier..In my mind the female is sub adult. I just really wanted to know at what instar they were adult and with you mentioning 8 for a female and that 7 cm's is on the small size for an adult female that's basically enough to confirm it for me.

These are my most expensive scorpions and i'd hate to put them together and then have one of them injure the other so i want to be pretty sure their adult before they get a chance to dance


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## doggmann (Jun 29, 2012)

Beautiful.


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## snippy (Jun 30, 2012)

Just a word of caution, though: The predominant instars in which scorpions mature are not fixed. Some individuals don't match those numbers. I've just seen it myself. A seventh instar P. villosus just littered and I was waiting for a molt all this time. Obviously that means, that she is quite a bit smaller than most females, too (about as big as my male).

Regards
Finn

Reactions: Like 1


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## RobynTRR (Jun 30, 2012)

Great pics.


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## 2nscorpx (Jun 30, 2012)

Beautiful specimens! Finn, important to know!


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## TGirl828 (Jun 30, 2012)

I must say...those are some beautiful scorpions.


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## Olsin (Jul 1, 2012)

Tempted by your post Finn i decided to put them together to see what happened .. The male was put in first but as you can see in the vid the female didn't want to know him and he was uninterested in her..In fact it's as if the female was afraid of getting close to him.

[video=youtube;1XFLcRu_U2Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XFLcRu_U2Q[/video]


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## snippy (Jul 1, 2012)

A little panic right after introducing them into the new surroundings is nothing significant. How long did you leave them in there?

Regards
Finn


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## Olsin (Jul 1, 2012)

Probably no more than 15 minutes. There were long periods where they both crawled the walls in each their end of the enclosure. When they did get close the female would bolt away very quickly as you saw her do in the short clip. I would be really uneasy with letting them be together overnight because it seemed to me as if the female sensed a real and present danger in the company of the male. I'm going to let them be apart now for the next few months and see if the female shows signs of pre moult. 
I'm sure she is still sub adult Finn.


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## snippy (Jul 1, 2012)

Yeah, seems pretty much to be the case now 

Regards
Finn


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## Ivymike1973 (Jul 1, 2012)

Not sure if it makes a difference at this point but I always heard it was better to introduce the male into the females enclosure.


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## Michiel (Jul 2, 2012)

Yes, indeed. Introduce the male into the females enclosure, this way the male will pick up the pheromones (scent trail) of the female more quickly with his pectines, because it's established....

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