Moakmeister
Arachnodemon
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2016
- Messages
- 758
I could be wrong. But.
I was doing research this morning to try and figure out if my recently purchased scorpion is a true imperator as labelled, or a dictator. All of the differences discussed on AB and elsewhere are very fine details and difficult to actually spot. There is of course the 100% accurate method of checking the number of trichobothria on the inside of the chela - imperators have three and dictators have two. But this is hard to do because they're tiny and they're on the inside of the claws.
But I noticed something else. And as far as I can possibly tell, no one has ever mentioned this or discussed it on AB or in the papers I read. Which is crazy, because it's actually super visually distinct.
It's the angle at which the dorsal "crest" of the chela meet/become the immovable finger. I'm not sure what that part is called, it's the portion of the chela that looks like a shield. On a true imperator, this dorsal crest curves downward quite hard and then very sharply transitions into the immovable finger, almost at a right angle:
Whereas on a Heterometrus species, this curve is much gentler, and the corner is "filleted" at a greater radius, you might say:
I noticed today that on individuals that have been identified as being P. dictator, their claws look like THIS:
Now call me crazy, but that curve is much more similar to the gentle slope of the Heterometrus chela than the harsh angle of the imperator.
And since I noticed that, it's unmistakable. Here are the links to the videos these images came from: the imperator and the dictator. It's so noticeable! Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Go to Google and search "pandinus dictator" and scroll. When you see an imperator in there, it'll stick out like a sore thumb.
Could this be a reliable method of identification?
And here's my new scorpion too:
I was doing research this morning to try and figure out if my recently purchased scorpion is a true imperator as labelled, or a dictator. All of the differences discussed on AB and elsewhere are very fine details and difficult to actually spot. There is of course the 100% accurate method of checking the number of trichobothria on the inside of the chela - imperators have three and dictators have two. But this is hard to do because they're tiny and they're on the inside of the claws.
But I noticed something else. And as far as I can possibly tell, no one has ever mentioned this or discussed it on AB or in the papers I read. Which is crazy, because it's actually super visually distinct.
It's the angle at which the dorsal "crest" of the chela meet/become the immovable finger. I'm not sure what that part is called, it's the portion of the chela that looks like a shield. On a true imperator, this dorsal crest curves downward quite hard and then very sharply transitions into the immovable finger, almost at a right angle:
Whereas on a Heterometrus species, this curve is much gentler, and the corner is "filleted" at a greater radius, you might say:
I noticed today that on individuals that have been identified as being P. dictator, their claws look like THIS:
Now call me crazy, but that curve is much more similar to the gentle slope of the Heterometrus chela than the harsh angle of the imperator.
And since I noticed that, it's unmistakable. Here are the links to the videos these images came from: the imperator and the dictator. It's so noticeable! Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Go to Google and search "pandinus dictator" and scroll. When you see an imperator in there, it'll stick out like a sore thumb.
Could this be a reliable method of identification?
And here's my new scorpion too:
