New young take second feed in 2 days

Mark Newton

Arachnobaron
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My adult female Urodacus planimanus gave birth to 14 young as in my first post here, and thankfully they all survived...which is not the norm, believe me. The average weight when they first left mum was 0.77g. I will weigh them in a couple of weeks time. This is their second meal now in 2 days, quite gregarious at this stage.


 

Brian S

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Mark, Is it easy to sex this species?

Another Q: Not meaning to change the subject, but I saw a TV show I believe it was on Animal Planet where they showed a rather large looking scorpion that looked similar to Hadogenes/Centruroides cross (unusual way to describe I know). They never said what species it was (typical AP). What is the largest sp in Oz?
 

Mark Newton

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Mark, Is it easy to sex this species?

Another Q: Not meaning to change the subject, but I saw a TV show I believe it was on Animal Planet where they showed a rather large looking scorpion that looked similar to Hadogenes/Centruroides cross (unusual way to describe I know). They never said what species it was (typical AP). What is the largest sp in Oz?
Easy to sex as adults, not before though. Quite a strongly sexually dimorphic species. The male has quite a long metasoma, but not quite as long as the species shown below.

You might have seen Urodacus elongatus, thats a big species (on Australian standards), also possibly Urodacus excellens. There are few species that could potentially be classified as the biggest, none of them stand out as as being clearly the biggest. For us, 120-140mm would be a big scorpion (snout-vent).

Look anything like this:

 
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Brian S

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Mark, I do believe that is it. It looked pretty large on TV but I know its a bit difficult to tell for sure like that.
Needless to say that is a beautiful looking species. Have you tried culturing them before?
EDIT: scratch that last question. I just now realized that is what you have in the vial in your other thread
 

Mark Newton

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Mark, I do believe that is it. It looked pretty large on TV but I know its a bit difficult to tell for sure like that.
Needless to say that is a beautiful looking species. Have you tried culturing them before?
EDIT: scratch that last question. I just now realized that is what you have in the vial in your other thread
I have done a lot of work on this species and really, if I had a favourite this would be it. They have a fairly limited geographic range and are confined to particular habitats within that range so for me its important to have as much knowledge about maintaining them in captivity as possible. Quite a hardy species comparatively speaking. They are obligate rock dwelling burrowers and due to their semi-fossorial life they are tolerant to drier air and changing conditions.


Here is a shot of an adult female with newborn young. Havent had time to clamber onto mums back yet.

 
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Mark Newton

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An average size male Urodacus elongatus taking time out on my hand....thought it might give you a better idea.


 

Brian S

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Now that is an impressive scorp! I would sure like to get a few of those
 

Mark Newton

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Mark, are there any posts on here or in your forum of a complete set of photos for all your species?

Ed
Hi Ed...No...no such animal I'm afraid. Very few keepers in Australia and lots of scorps found in far off places that few ever see. They are often darn hard to find too. Australia is largely unoccupied by people, most live along the coast whereas most scorpions live inland. Which means many species are rarely ever seen. Then its the scary matter of identification....another thing about our scorps, a lot dont have distinguising features that are useful taxonomically.

I have a few shots on my list:

http://www.thedailylink.com/thespiralburrow/species/index.html

Cheers
 

zilch

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great looking scorp you have there. is it venomous?

*i mean the urodacus elongatus
 

Mark Newton

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great looking scorp you have there. is it venomous?

*i mean the urodacus elongatus
As you know all scorpions carry venom, but a sting from this scorpion would be nothing to worry about. These guys are so incredibly placid, I cant imagine one ever bothering to sting a human, unless you stood on it or something similarly frightening for the scorpion. The females make up for the placid male...they are real nasty SOB's. This species has the sexual sting behaviour...only way the male can calm her down.
 
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