Hey, I just picked up a few militares at a show today. They're about in inch and a half long each. I put them in a 12.5' by 7' critter carrier with a water dish, a few hides and the substrate is about 1.5' of damp sphagnum. The lid has seran wrap over it to keep in humidity. Any suggestions, things I should know or be doing? I figured they can't be much different than emperors. Thanks.
pandinus cavimanus militares advice
- Thread starter skips
- Start date
- Joined
- May 14, 2004
- Messages
- 3,088
very similar to emperors, except they like it a little drier (70-85% humidity i would say) and they are NOT communal, so keep em seperated
John
Oh that women from tarantula inc. lies! If I get home and one's dead i'll flip. thanks for the info.
- Joined
- May 14, 2004
- Messages
- 3,088
that's the way to care for cavimanus at least, but ive never kept militares, but the two are more alike than imperators. was she mistaken, probably so, but i highly highly doubt she was lying. ive met them on multiple occasions, and they are all very nice and very professional.
John
John
P.cavimanus (=P.militaris). This means that P.militaris is a junior synonym of P.cavimanus, meaning they are the same species. I'd wish these scorpion sellers would take notice of this, instead of labelling scorpions with exotic sounding names to sell them for higher prices!
- Joined
- May 14, 2004
- Messages
- 3,088
this was my vague understanding, but as i am not that up to date on pandinus taxonomy, i was willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Either way, it is a very common misconception that you can keep all pandinus spp. like you would an imperator, but in all actuallity, the imperator is quite different from the other pandinus spp. currently in the hobby, and is much more similar in care to heterometrus spp. than other pandinus like cavimanus and smithi which are both more of a tropical savanah type species and are not as colonial. therefore, they preffer a more moderate humidity to the emperors, and while they do form loose aggregations in the wild sometimes, these are a far cry from the large colonies of imperators found in termite mounds in the savanahs, and in burrows in the rainforest. these other species are more opportunistic, and while if well fed may cohabitate with eachother in loose groups, they are more than willing to grab and consume one another should the opportunity present itself.
John
You're right, I shouldn't make it sound like she hassled me. She told me if they were around the same size, which they are, that they'd be fine together. I'm going to have to leave them together for a while though. Maybe I can just put up a partition in their enclosure.
The nomeclature makes it sound like militares is a subspecies of cavinmanus. Is that correct?
Oh, and do they burrow--i.e. should I give them a more burrowing condusive substrate? She said they don't but when I put them in their enclosure one instantly jumped into on hole and stayed there.
Thanks again.
The nomeclature makes it sound like militares is a subspecies of cavinmanus. Is that correct?
Oh, and do they burrow--i.e. should I give them a more burrowing condusive substrate? She said they don't but when I put them in their enclosure one instantly jumped into on hole and stayed there.
Thanks again.
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2005
- Messages
- 1,187
Most scorpion species will burrow if given the opportunity.
In nature most are found either actively hunting or waiting near the burrow entrance for something to walk by.
It's kind of like a drive thru restaurant vs. a sit down and eat restaurant.
Both serve the same purpose but, different preferrences.
Point being they borrow for security/camouflage in order to survive.
In nature most are found either actively hunting or waiting near the burrow entrance for something to walk by.
It's kind of like a drive thru restaurant vs. a sit down and eat restaurant.
Both serve the same purpose but, different preferrences.
Point being they borrow for security/camouflage in order to survive.
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2005
- Messages
- 8,982
cavimanus = militaris! WOW! That might be old news but it's the first time I've heard of that. Great basic info, thanks. Congrats on your new scorps.
Hmmm...well, thank you for the congratulations on my one scorpion. When i got home today one had already killed the other. Took less than a day. I'm not happy. Pandinus, thanks for the very correct information they are NOT communal. Next time I won't trust anything but my own research. Hindsight is always 20/20. Like I said, not happy at all.
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Messages
- 438
Not communal?..
..I've had two together for about a yr and half and they have been fine. A m/f though and were together when I bought them, so apparently they've been together for awhile.
- Joined
- May 14, 2004
- Messages
- 3,088
nothing is 100%. it'll work... til one day it doesnt. hope it does though, so good luck.Not communal?..
John
- Joined
- May 14, 2004
- Messages
- 3,088
hey that's great. sorry about your loss, but at least you did business with a good group who was willing to help right?
John
I am sorry, I should have explained this better. Actually it is militaris= cavimanus.
militaris is a junior synonym, meaning that the name P. cavimanus should be used.
Now, what do you mean by a "junior synonym." Is that an actual taxonomic category? I assumed by the way it was written that militaris was a subspecies of cavimanus, which I assumed was just a subspecies of imperator anyway so I was confused.
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2006
- Messages
- 2,980
It means that they sold it to you with the wrong taxonic name.
Pandinus(genus) cavimanus(species) militares(sub-species) is incorrect.
It actually us Pandinus cavimanus now but used to be Pandinus militares
Pandinus(genus) cavimanus(species) militares(sub-species) is incorrect.
It actually us Pandinus cavimanus now but used to be Pandinus militares
Don't you people read?
Guys it isn't that hard at all. Let me try again:
1. It has nothing to do with subspecies!
2. Do you know the meaning of the word synonym? And understand the concepts of juniority and seniority?
If P.militaris is the junior synonym of P.cavimanus, it means that it is preffered to call the species, P.cavimanus (senior synonym as in opposite of junior synonym).
How does this happen? Well, scientists describe species and every once in a while another scientist i.e. revises a genus, it happens very often that species are synonymized (two or more different names for the same species).
Take the species Tityus obscurus, it was called T.paraensis before that and before that T.cambridgei. Another species Tityus piceus was in fact also T.obscurus. But in the end they all fit the discription of T.obscurus, the species that was discovered before all the other mentioned.
This is kind of confusing, tell me about it. Scientist cannot always make up their minds Unless your are really interested in taxonomy, I would not bother spending too much time cracking your head over this
Guys it isn't that hard at all. Let me try again:
1. It has nothing to do with subspecies!
2. Do you know the meaning of the word synonym? And understand the concepts of juniority and seniority?
If P.militaris is the junior synonym of P.cavimanus, it means that it is preffered to call the species, P.cavimanus (senior synonym as in opposite of junior synonym).
How does this happen? Well, scientists describe species and every once in a while another scientist i.e. revises a genus, it happens very often that species are synonymized (two or more different names for the same species).
Take the species Tityus obscurus, it was called T.paraensis before that and before that T.cambridgei. Another species Tityus piceus was in fact also T.obscurus. But in the end they all fit the discription of T.obscurus, the species that was discovered before all the other mentioned.
This is kind of confusing, tell me about it.
Scientist cannot always make up their minds Unless your are really interested in taxonomy, I would not bother spending too much time cracking your head over this
Last edited:
Don't you people read?
Guys it isn't that hard at all. Let me try again:
1. It has nothing to do with subspecies!
2. Do you know the meaning of the word synonym? And understand the concepts of juniority and seniority?
If P.militaris is the junior synonym of P.cavimanus, it means that it is preffered to call the species, P.cavimanus (senior synonym as in opposite of junior synonym).
How does this happen? Well, scientists describe species and every once in a while another scientist i.e. revises a genus, it happens very often that species are synonymized (two or more different names for the same species).
Take the species Tityus obscurus, it was called T.paraensis before that and before that T.cambridgei. Another species Tityus piceus was in fact also T.obscurus. But in the end they all fit the discription of T.obscurus, the species that was discovered before all the other mentioned.
This is kind of confusing, tell me about it.
Haha, a bit pompous, but i'll let it slide so as not to start a pointless internet argument. Thanks for the info. I absolutely want to know what I can about their taxonomy.
I wouldn't be pointless, unless you wouldn't accpet your loss
:} I can understand what your saying, but bare in mind I am a member of 5 scorpion fora and sometimes I get tired of explaining things and I think: people, I learned by reading papers ands books, why does everybody here asks everthing??? Sorry, I didn't meant to be pompous