Advise & Direction To More Knowledge Of The Pandinus & Heterometrus spp

[Thaedion]

My quest for knowledge of scorpions will linger/reside for some time with the gathering of accurate information of the proper identification, sexing, biology, regional distribution etc for the Pandinus spp (mainly imperator & cavimanus) and the Heterometrus spp (mainly spinifer, laoticus & longimanus). Primarily because these are readily available in the pet trade.

Now I'm a studious learner and request any insight and help in gathering resources, papers or books that are pertinent. I've been looking, in vain, for three papers referenced in a PDF, I'll note the reference and the papers "three papers. Belfield’s (1956) key reviewed traditional diagnostic differences in the pectinal tooth count and the surface ornamentation of the carapace, terga and pedipalp chela manus between P. dictator and the closely related P. imperator and P. gambiensis (as P. imperator gambiensis). Vachon (1974) presented a new key, wherein diagnostic differences in the numbers and relative positions of pedipalp trichobothria were demonstrated among the three species, transferred P. dictator to a new subgenus, Pandinopsis, and retained the other two species, which are evidently more closely related, in the subgenus Pandinus. Lourenço and Cloudsley-Thompson (1996) summarized the differences presented by Vachon (1974) and discussed the known distributional range of the three species."

Also ,for the Heterometrus, I have the PDFs by Fet "euscorpius/p2004_15.pdf " but is it the authority? G Carnell reference "Couzijn" where can I find his work? Are there others?

I just recently purchased "the Biology of Scorpions" Polis, and have no reservations to buy more books, please just point me in the direction to go (PS, I'm uni-lingual and only know English)

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Dōmo arigatō, Thaedion

 

[EAD063]

Hey T (for lack of a current nickname)

I KNOW there is a map showing the distribution of general pandinus (definently imperator, cavimanus and viattoris), which was available at a pandinus website. I can't imagine what to search for in the forum to find it. As for sexing pandinus, the pectines tell all. Females have much smaller teeth on their pectines than males. When compared side by side it's a quite obvious comparision, so sexing individuals without comparison takes a bit of practice. (By smaller, meaning the organ itself is smaller, but the teeth are very short, rather than the longer more prononuced teethof a male. The genital operculum offers some help with males being round and females showing a point to it, although you'd rather compare the teeth on the pectines. For common Heterometrus, but not all, you look at the genital operculum, if it points up it's male and if it points down it's female, you can also look at the pectines.

I know there are some pdf's about pandinus, all I have which may help you is Systematics and biogeography of the family Scorpionidae, I'm pretty sure it's a short read though. As for heterometrus, all I have is the revision to the heterometrus files, which are packed with methods of identification of heterometrus, but it is filled with a lot of jargon... pm me if they're of help, but there are many others with a good collection of files.

Ed

 

[Thaedion]

Thanks for the input ED.
But what I'm looking for, or the reason I'm looking for, books or papers and such, is to gain more than passed on knowledge. I want to be able to reference why I say "this is this and that is that". I want to read about what you all quote here at AB. All the information I gather here has helped me immensely in making a viable habitat for my Pandinus and Heterometrus spp. now I want to go scientific, and start to see where you all get it from.

Again thanks Thaedion

PS:T is fine for a nick just not Mr T thank you

 

[skinheaddave]

If your interest is in taxonomy and biogeography, then you are going to need to track down a LOT of papers. Your first step is to acquire The Catalouge of the Scorpions of the World which provides very little detail, but an incredibly thorough list of references.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Nazgul]

Hi,

also you should download the bibliography collection by Gerard Dupre from Jan Ove´s or Eric´s page and do a search on papers in it.

In case you are interested in a paper you should search the net by using http://scholar.google.de/ if it´s available for free download first, if not you would have to order it via your local library.

 

[Thaedion]

Dave, Nazgul; Thanks for the point in the right direction, I'll get right on those.

The main reason I ask for help in the way to walk this path, is that there are several contradicting and/or revised references out there that I don't want to waste my time going down a dead end. So that is why I want to learn from your experiences.

Thanks again ALL, and keep the references coming...

Cheers Thaedion