Centruroides limbatus

[skinheaddave]

I was stung by a subadult of the lighter colour form of this species while trying to tail it at the Cano Palma research station near Tortuguero, Costa Rica.

There was immediate pain, as if being penetrated by a thorn much larger than the actual sting. The site of the sting felt tight and as if it was burning, although there was little visible inflimation. After approximately an hour, the pain had subsided to the point where I was more aware of a sensation of tingling like when you stick your tongue on a 9V battery.

After an additional half hour, the pain and tingling had subsided to the point where my thumb felt like it had a sealed paper cut on it -- where moving my thumb felt odd but keeping it still was without much sensation. Several hours later, this too had subsided and I felt nothing. At no point did I experience any systemic effects, nor did the symptoms extend beyond the initial sting site -- not even as far as my first joint on my thumb.

EDIT - August 11, 2006. I just got stung in the back of the head by a yellow jacket (Paravespula sp., I think) and I can say that the scorpion hurt a lot more, although the inflimation from the yellow jacket was much worse.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Allencat23]

I feel a little strange posting on this site, not being a huge fan of arachnids myself, but I came across your post when trying to figure out what kind of scorpion stung me while I was in Central America this summer. From pictures and your description, I think it was a female Centruroides limbatus. I was stung in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, very close to the Costa Rica border. The scorpion stung me on the thumb and then must have crawled down my pants, where I found her a half hour later. Let me tell you that even if you like scorpions, it is no fun to have one down your pants. A friend helped me get her out- she was about 10 cm long and pretty mad to be shaken unceremoniously out of her hiding place. I have to say I'm sorry that a Nicaraguan guy killed her- she was really quite beautiful in a scary sort of way. Any rate, the sting hurt a lot for about 45 minutes and turned a dark purple color until I put onion on it. I didn't get any medical attention because I didn't know what had stung me at first, and everyone figured that since I wasn't sick after 45 minutes I wasn't going to have a problem. A woman had me drink a large cup of coffee, however, to get any venom out of my system.

 

[Anonymity82]

I was stung while trying to get another picture of a probable C. limbatus. I say probable because it's kind of under dispute only because this particular scorpion is on the rarer side. I have no reason to not believe the person who sold it to me because he surprised me with it and basically gave it to me for free so it wasn't a "rare" sale. He also knew his stuff when we discussed scorpions but I wanted to try and verify it here anyway: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?242875-ID-please! He said the parent(s) crawled into his friend's luggage when he was on vacation.

It's only about 3 or 4i. I allowed myself to become complacent and just willy nilly reached in to grab the bark to get a better picture. I don't have the greatest light and didn't realize he was right there on the top. My hand was right behind him and he just extended his tail backward and dug his little sting in. At first it just felt hot and painful. Not too terrible but something like a wasp sting. In about 30-60 seconds the pain subsided until a couple hours later when I took a shower. The hot water was a surprise. But then after that I had no pain and the slightest amount of swelling.