odd behavior?

[CID143ti]

I've have an adult female Buthus occitanus that has a one pedipalp that it can not use due to an injury. This kind of makes it a special needs scorpion. It has difficulty moving around and catching prey. I use forceps to feed the scorpion. Anyway, the scorpion displays some odd behavior. It will come and sit directly under the heat lamp. Every morning as soon as the heat lamp turns on it will crawl out from under it's scrape and "basks" under the light. It only leaves to go back to it's scrape once the heat light goes off. The scorpion does not come out when the light is off. Even my H. spadix and H. arzonensis do not display behavior like this. Is this normal? The other three B. occitanus I have do not doe this. Any ideas or info will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

W. Smith

 

[Malhavoc's]

Perhaps the heat is helping it heal?

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Hi William,

I have two B. occitanus. Both have displayed similar behavior, but not quite as consistent as yours seems. A lot of the time they are hidden in their burrows. They come out at varying periods, though. It sounds like it enjoys the basking, as you've said. Mine do the same, often facing the sunlight (thier container is placed beside a southward facing window so they get quite a bit of light through the day).

Other than her lamp-basking, is her behavior normal?

I haven't kept this species for very long, but it sounds normal to me from what I've seen of mine.

Best wishes,

Paul

 

[CID143ti]

Thanks for the posts.

Malhavoc's,

Well, maybe the scorpion is trying to heal it's injury. But, I don't think so since it lost the use of the pedipalp about two months ago. It's totally dry, (discolored).

Paul,

I haven't kept these very long either. This scorpion has the most personality (if I'm allowed to use this word) than any other scorpion I ever owned! It never refuses food. I've feed it seven days (adult crickets and large meal worms) in a row and it ate every time. Lately, I've been feeding her about three times per week. I've even had a close call with her once. I was shuffling some things around in her enclosure and she marched over to investigate. Man, she was swinging that tail at me as soon as she got in range. I'll never put my hands in that cage again! I've never experienced a scorpion act as she does. The other B. occitanus have are much more laid back (there goes that personality thing again) than she is.

Thanks,

W. Smith

 

[phoenixxavierre]

William,

I was watering mine today with a watercolor paint brush, dropping water on their chelicerae. They were quite thirsty! At first they tried to sting and got all hostile, like you described, waving that tail around and stinging at the brush! Once they realized it had water, and they were thirsty, they allowed me to apply drops of water to their chelicerae for about 15 minutes til they had their fill! hehe! Very cute scorps!

Here is a pic of one of them. What do you think, fat or gravid?

Best wishes,

Paul

 

[rainman]

that thing has to be gravid. i've never seen a fat scorp look that fat before. pretty awesome looking. what species?

 

[Frank]

Originally posted by phoenixxavierre
I have two B. occitanus. Both have displayed similar behavior, but not quite as consistent as yours seems.

Frank

 

[jper26]

That looks alot like my California dune scorp Smeringurus species.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Originally posted by jper26
That looks alot like my California dune scorp Smeringurus species.

Cool! Do you have a pic? I don't have any Smeringurus. This was sold to me as Buthis occitanus. Would anyone happen to know if it's the typical B. occitanus?

 

[jper26]

Paul when I posted a pic of my smeringurus someone said it looked alot like a B.occitanus lol. I did have it posted in the thread my smeringurus gave birth but I deleted it cause I got a new camera. When it comes out of its burrow ill try and get a good pic.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Joe,

Thankyou!

Any idea if the source of the id is reliable?

 

[jper26]

I got it from invertepet. The pic I last took is under the thread my smeringurus gave birth its on page 3 of this forum I dont know how too type the thread up too bring on here. Mine is just a little guy looks a little darker but has alot of same looks too it.

 

[phoenixxavierre]

I see what you mean. There are slight differences in my pic and yours. There are also differences in your pic and the smeringurus.

For future reference you can copy/paste a thread from your browser. Just right click the address of the thread shown in your browser and click on "copy," then left click in the "your reply" field, then right click and click on "paste."

Does your "smeringurus" look the same now as it did in your other pic?

 

[jper26]

Yeah it pretty much does look the same but im hoping it will molt soon. Its amazing how 2 scorps from different families can look so similar maybe mine is wrong. My guy has a hardy appetite and I have never seen him drink. So im thinking what ever he is he loves dry conditions. Made me think cause if hes the California version I would think he would drink a little more. Im watching im hoping he comes out tonight ill snap a pic of him hes kinda skittesh.

 

[CID143ti]

Joe,

I think that might have been me that asked about your S. mesaensis. I think I said it looked like a Buthacus arenicola...a little different than B. occitanus.

Paul,

Wow, that thing is plump. Is it an adult? I have two different ssp. of the darker variety of B. occitanus. I have. B. o. tunetanus and B. o. mardochei. I have a Buthus species that looks similar to your pic. The person I bought it from was unable to identify it. He said that it didn't key out to being a B. occitanus. I believe he collected it in Egypt.

W. Smith

 

[phoenixxavierre]

Originally posted by CID143ti


Paul,

Wow, that thing is plump. Is it an adult? I have two different ssp. of the darker variety of B. occitanus. I have. B. o. tunetanus and B. o. mardochei. I have a Buthus species that looks similar to your pic. The person I bought it from was unable to identify it. He said that it didn't key out to being a B. occitanus. I believe he collected it in Egypt.

W. Smith

William,

I'm actually not sure if it's an adult. I was thinking that if it's gravid it must be, but I'm not even sure of that. If it ends up darkening on the pleural membrane then I'll know it's going to molt. Until now it has remained light though.

I don't know how to key the species or I would have attempted it by now. I've been told it came from Egypt or Tunisia, came in an Egyptian shipment with some other Middle Eastern scorps, and as far as id I was told Buthis occitanus by one person and Buthis occitanus tunetanus by another. Do you have pics of your tunetanus and mardochei?

Paul

 

[CID143ti]

Buthus occitanus tunetanus.

Sorry, it's not a very good pic.

 

[CID143ti]

Buthus sp.

Again, not a very good pic.

 

[CID143ti]

Paul,

You're right. If it's an adult it's most likely gravid. How large is it? Keep an eye on the pleural membrane. That would be a nice bonus if it was gravid. Well, I am in no means of being expert; but, I think the Tunisian variety are darker than most of the Egyptian variety. Don't quote me on that; just what I've noticed...so far.

I don't have a pic of the B. o. mardochei. I'll take one as soon as I can borrow a digital camera. Well, it looks just like B. o. tunetanus. The B. o. mardochei was collected in January of '02 near Al Jadida, Morocco. The B. o. tunetanus was collected in May of '02 in Matmata, Tunisia. Oh, the Buthus sp. was collected on April 22 of '02 from Marsa Matruh, Egypt.

W. Smith

 

[phoenixxavierre]

William,

thankyou for posting the pics! The Buthus species (second pic) looks pretty much exactly like the two I have. The mesosoma of the largest one is only slightly larger than an inch, and the metasoma is about the same. I really have no idea how large Buthus species get. Seeing as it may not be B. occitanus, I'm not sure how to compare it to the description in Scorpions of Medical Importance. I was told by one other person that the lighter form is the Tunisian form of B. occitanus, but I really don't know either way. You've definitely given me reason to wonder. You don't need to go out of your way to get a pic, but if you happen to end up with a digicam some pics would be great! I looked at the weather in Mersah Matruh, Egypt and interestingly enough, despite the obvious dry conditions and lack of rain, the humidity currently is ranging from 55% during the day to 75% during the evening. I bet the scorpions get their moisture from prey and from dew collecting on whatever plants there are there during the evening. The next ten days there are nothing but sun, with temps up to 89F during the day and down to 71F in the evening. The "wettest" month is January with an average of 1.4 inches of rain during the month. The driest months are July to September with 0 inches of rain during all those months. I found it interesting that this is one of the "dry" months and humidities reach 75% at night. I always figured Egypt was low humidity during it's dry periods, even in the evening, but I guess this particular area isn't like that at all!

Paul