Florida scorpion identification help

[grommthemans]

I caught this girl running around my house a few months back and decided to keep her but now that she's on her second batch of babies I figure its time to pinpoint her exact species so I can look into taking better care of her and her offspring. I figure she's a bark scorpion of some kind and she's obviously from central Florida.

 

[JenVegas]

From what I understand, there are only 3 scorpion species found in Florida, and only one that gets that dark. So I'm guessing she's a Florida Bark Scorpion. Centruroides gracilis. And a pretty one, at that. Love the color!

 

[mantisfan101]

Gracilis, and congrats on the babies!

 

[GordoOldman]

This is where common names suck. Centruroides gracilis is a species introduced to FL, and since it is a Central American species...I personally really dislike the moniker "FL" Bark scorpion...

That said, your scorpion is Centruroides hentzi. Also called a Florida Bark Scorpion...which is where we get to my disdaine of this common name.

The tiny size of adult hentzi compared to adult gracilis is an immediate give away, even though in this image we can not see the adult underneath the mound of babies, we can see the sphagnum moss for size reference.

Without the size reference a give away that they are not gracilis is the fact the instars chela are not red.

I attach an image of a Central Fl example of a gravid hentzi and a gracilis from FL with a litter on her back.

Beautiful scorpions. Congrats on the second litter!

 

[GordoOldman]

Figured I would add this image of some 1i gracilis...even new, the chelae are red.

 

[JenVegas]

This is where common names suck. Centruroides gracilis is a species introduced to FL, and since it is a Central American species...I personally really dislike the moniker "FL" Bark scorpion...

That said, your scorpion is Centruroides hentzi. Also called a Florida Bark Scorpion...which is where we get to my disdaine of this common name.

The tiny size of adult hentzi compared to adult gracilis is an immediate give away, even though in this image we can not see the adult underneath the mound of babies, we can see the sphagnum moss for size reference.

Without the size reference a give away that they are not gracilis is the fact the instars chela are not red.

I attach an image of a Central Fl example of a gravid hentzi and a gracilis from FL with a litter on her back.

Beautiful scorpions. Congrats on the second litter!

Oh oops, lol. She looked super dark, which was why I thought gracilis. Didn't even occur to me to look at the sphagnum for the size reference. I didn't know that about the chela being red, though. So that's cool, I learned something new.

 

[GordoOldman]

We are all learning hopefully! Otherwise where is the fun?

C. hentzi can be fairly dark, the striping on them being much lighter than the background...but their phenotypic expression varies a bit, but compared to say Centruroides guanensis (a south FL scorpion) they are very dark.

The chelae being red on gracilis is an neat thing...an observation on some "gracilis" litters not having red chelae led to the investigation of and eventual new species description and write up of Centruroides carribeanus.

 

[gromgrom]

This is where common names suck. Centruroides gracilis is a species introduced to FL, and since it is a Central American species...I personally really dislike the moniker "FL" Bark scorpion...

That said, your scorpion is Centruroides hentzi. Also called a Florida Bark Scorpion...which is where we get to my disdaine of this common name.

The tiny size of adult hentzi compared to adult gracilis is an immediate give away, even though in this image we can not see the adult underneath the mound of babies, we can see the sphagnum moss for size reference.

Without the size reference a give away that they are not gracilis is the fact the instars chela are not red.

I attach an image of a Central Fl example of a gravid hentzi and a gracilis from FL with a litter on her back.

Beautiful scorpions. Congrats on the second litter!

came here to say this. From the photo it was most likely a hentzi. Less likely a guanesis (uncommon, but larger)

 

[Lubed Tweezer]

C gracils scorplings have orange/bright red colored legs.
Adults have less bright colored legs but still a lighter color than the body.

 

[GordoOldman]

Being that guanensis is not found in central FL and tend to be much lighter, and unless it came up from the pine rocklands of southern FL due to a visit there or a move from there I ruled out guanensis.

 

[GordoOldman]

Early gracilis instars normally have dark legs and only red chelae...the red orange to yellow legs seen in some phenotypes typically pop up in 3i to 4i...as adults phenotypes with solid black legs and bodies occur in gracilis populations everywhere they occur.

 

[grommthemans]

Thank you so much for the incredibly detailed reply! It was infuriating trying to get any results from searching for Florida bark scorpions, so I understand your disdain of common names lol
Also thank you for the compliments on the babies, I wish I could take some credit but she honestly just keeps surprising me with them