I got an actual FOREST MORPH Pandinus imperator!!!

[Moakmeister]

Guys, this is the most enormous scorpion I have ever seen. I was absolutely gobsmacked when they took the lid off his tub in the pet shop. I was literally getting rung up buying a below-average emperor that I figured was a male, to pair with my female, when I finally noticed the tub labelled "giant emperor scorpion." I brought it over to the counter, the guy took off the lid, and I just went "JESUS!"

Instant purchase.

I am certain he's a forest morph. He's so huge, he's actually bigger than my adult female G. pulchripes. I haven't weighed him yet, but I'll give an update when I do.

I planned on getting a large hissing cockroach to give to my female to make sure she wouldn't be hungry when I paired her... well, I bought the roach, but gave it to the male instead XD

Here he is with his roach:


And here he is compared to the female:



HE'S HUMONGOUS!!!

I don't know for sure his sex though. Can anyone please tell me if this is a male or a female? This is the only picture I have sadly, and it's all out of focus because I was excited and just took it quickly at the shop:



I hope with my entire being that it's a male. If it is, I will absolutely be loaning him out for pairings with anyone who wants it. A true giant. I'm still in awe.

 

[Mustafa67]

Guys, this is the most enormous scorpion I have ever seen. I was absolutely gobsmacked when they took the lid off his tub in the pet shop. I was literally getting rung up buying a below-average emperor that I figured was a male, to pair with my female, when I finally noticed the tub labelled "giant emperor scorpion." I brought it over to the counter, the guy took off the lid, and I just went "JESUS!"

Instant purchase.

I am certain he's a forest morph. He's so huge, he's actually bigger than my adult female G. pulchripes. I haven't weighed him yet, but I'll give an update when I do.

I planned on getting a large hissing cockroach to give to my female to make sure she wouldn't be hungry when I paired her... well, I bought the roach, but gave it to the male instead XD

Here he is with his roach:
View attachment 496623

And here he is compared to the female:

View attachment 496622

HE'S HUMONGOUS!!!

I don't know for sure his sex though. Can anyone please tell me if this is a male or a female? This is the only picture I have sadly, and it's all out of focus because I was excited and just took it quickly at the shop:

View attachment 496621

I hope with my entire being that it's a male. If it is, I will absolutely be loaning him out for pairings with anyone who wants it. A true giant. I'm still in awe.

That’s awesome, they’re hard to find here in the UK

 

[Moakmeister]

That’s awesome, they’re hard to find here in the UK

They're hard to find here in the US as well, even decades after the wild export ban. And I honestly assumed there just kinda weren't any forest morphs in captivity, like maybe double digits in total.

 

[Ratmosphere]

Fire! That dude is massive.

 

[Moakmeister]

Fire! That dude is massive.

Any idea what sex it is?

 

[Wolfram1]

nice find!

 

[Moakmeister]

Fire! That dude is massive.

Hey you’ve bred imperators before - I just introduced this one with my female, but they tried to kill each other. No injuries, I separated them. I figured even if they are both females, they’d still cohabitate and I’d have a communal, but if they tried to kill each other on their first meeting… then it just won’t happen, will it?

 

[Ratmosphere]

Didn’t see your post above about sexing, I can’t tell to be honest. I don’t keep them communal because of the scenario you just explained.

 

[Moakmeister]

Didn’t see your post above about sexing, I can’t tell to be honest. I don’t keep them communal because of the scenario you just explained.

Somehow other people make it work ;_;
Man I wanted so badly for a communal though, even more than I wanted a mating actually.

 

[ForTW]

That is a regular P. imperator. Female, based on the blurry picture.
Wait till you see a gigantometrus swammerdami female fully grown . Even the males surpass a P. imp female.

However, lovely find indeed. Feel free to send a picture of the smaller one to sex. I assume it is a smaller female, i have one aswell and the difrences can be huge.

 

[Moakmeister]

That is a regular P. imperator. Female, based on the blurry picture.
Wait till you see a gigantometrus swammerdami female fully grown . Even the males surpass a P. imp female.

However, lovely find indeed. Feel free to send a picture of the smaller one to sex. I assume it is a smaller female, i have one aswell and the difrences can be huge.

That’s only because you haven’t seen it in person I have no doubt that swammerdamis get just as big or sometimes slightly bigger.

 

[Moakmeister]

[duplicate comment pls ignore]

 

[Ratmosphere]

Communal and cannibalism concerns are less with emperors, they are able to be kept communal and they don't usually eat each other. (but they can and sometimes do, so it is said "they are communal until they are not") Any that display aggression should be put alone.

 

[Moakmeister]

Based on the evidence I've seen, maybe it doesn't work unless they've lived together from an early age. I kept two emperor scorplings communally and they never had any conflict, and someone I've been in talks with for a breeding loan has three adults who are communal, but they already lived together at the shop before she bought them. So maybe adults who aren't familiar with each other just won't get along.

 

[Ratmosphere]

I'm not against it at all, I just don't do it. I mostly wanted to emphasize the last part of that quote.

 

[adam james]

That appears to be a female based on the operculum shape and pectine 'feather' length

 

[Moakmeister]

It's a female, for sure. Still no pics but now I see that she has a split operculum. I was focused on the pectine teeth length and kinda forgot that female imperators have long pectine teeth anyway, it's just that males apparently have REALLY long teeth. So I'm still out a male.

 

[ForTW]

It's a female, for sure. Still no pics but now I see that she has a split operculum. I was focused on the pectine teeth length and kinda forgot that female imperators have long pectine teeth anyway, it's just that males apparently have REALLY long teeth. So I'm still out a male.

P. imperator is very simpel to Sex via opercolum.
I think you can also count the numbers of pectine teeth on this one.
Length is for swammerdamis, numbers can be the Same in f/m and the operculum Looks similar.

 

[Moakmeister]

P. imperator is very simpel to Sex via opercolum.
I think you can also count the numbers of pectine teeth on this one.
Length is for swammerdamis, numbers can be the Same in f/m and the operculum Looks similar.

Yeah I'm now aware I need to look at the operculum shape instead of the pectines.

 

[adam james]

I find that in males, the pectine 'teeth' are longer, and each wing is also longer, and can extend past the edge on the margin.
Male operculum can look kind of arrow head like, or shovel head like, and point toward the front of the animal in general.
Females, and this specimen can have heart shaped operculum that points rearward.
However, when the operculum is kind of ambiguous looking, I usually try to look at the pectine 'wings'/'teeth'.