Scorpion Breeding Troubles

[MorbidArachnid]

So two parts to this thread

The first part is my Hottentotta hottentotta gave birth, I was expecting it because she is an adult female and I know they're parthenogenetic, but she gave birth kind of buried in a lump of sphagnum moss and most of her babies didn't make it onto her back. I set up an incubator (moist substrate with a cloth suspended over it in a warm area) and reintroduced the babies I could without overly stressing her over the next couple days, but I don't think any of them took and now she only has two on her. The weaker ones in the incubator didn't make it either. I've never had an issue with a brood before, and I'm pretty bummed this happened. Any ideas as to what I could do to prevent this in the future? I'm not entirely sure if it was the sphagnum moss that interfered with the babies climbing onto their mom or some other reason, nor am I sure if they were definitely lost or would've made it onto her back if I had just left them. I'm also assuming it wasn't due to stress because she didn't eat any of them once they were on her back, basically just some of them declined and fell off. I keep her on a mix of sand and peat moss that's mostly dry, with a moist side that has sphagnum moss and gets lightly misted every day, 80F. Any advice or thoughts on this would be appreciated.

The second part of this is I'm trying to breed a handful of US native scorpions and there's not a lot of information out there. In the Biology of Scorpions it says Uroctonus mordax mate in May, and Smeringurus mesaensis mate between May and October. Neither of my pairs have shown any interest in each other yet so I was wondering if anyone could confirm or give more information about seasonality, because most breeding guides I've seen don't mention season as being a factor in mating. I'm also trying to pair H silenus but again no success yet, they're not cohabed I've been introducing them to each other, and pair C. margaritatus but the male doesn't seem interested at all. I haven't attempted a pair yet, but I also have two Superstitionia donensis that I would love to attempt to breed, but there is very little information on these guys so any insights would be helpful. I'm not a complete newbie to getting moms safely through gestation and babies safely separated, I've had two Serradigitus gertschi broods, one Paravaejovis puritanus and two Paravaejovis spinigerus broods successfully birthed and separated, but I've never had a successful mating before so tips/advice would be appreciated. I am also pretty disappointed with what happened with my Hottentotta hottentotta so I also want to double check and make sure I'm not doing anything obviously wrong.

 

[Joey Spijkers]

The H. hottentotta thing sounds like bad luck to me. Was it her first brood? It is sometimes what happens with first broods.
General things to keep in mind for breeding: make sure all of them are adult, and that the male has solid surfaces to attach his spermatophore to. This can be a flat stone, a piece of wood or something similar.
As for the temperate species, a winter period is likely to trigger breeding behaviour, so try keeping them cooler this winter, and try again in spring.
As for the C. margaritatus, keep the temperature consistent as it's a tropical species, and I would just keep them together for a while. Centruroides species can be quite shy when first introduced, but will start exhibiting breeding behaviour once settled down in my experience. They are also very communal as adults, just keep an eye if there's no aggression for the first few hours, and they will likely be fine after that.

 

[MorbidArachnid]

Thank you, and yeah it was her first brood with me, I've had her for around 6 months now so I can't say for sure it was her first brood ever. I'll keep the other stuff in mind, I figured it might just be not the right season for the temperate species but again there's not a lot of information about seasonality in scorpions and most breeding guides I've read say pretty much just throw them together lmao. I can try keeping the Centruroides communally, side note was there a recent import of C margaritatus? I've seen them all over the place, seems every major seller has them.

 

[Joey Spijkers]

side note was there a recent import of C margaritatus? I've seen them all over the place, seems every major seller has them.

No idea, I'm not in the US.

 

[Matt1987]

So two parts to this thread

The first part is my Hottentotta hottentotta gave birth, I was expecting it because she is an adult female and I know they're parthenogenetic, but she gave birth kind of buried in a lump of sphagnum moss and most of her babies didn't make it onto her back. I set up an incubator (moist substrate with a cloth suspended over it in a warm area) and reintroduced the babies I could without overly stressing her over the next couple days, but I don't think any of them took and now she only has two on her. The weaker ones in the incubator didn't make it either. I've never had an issue with a brood before, and I'm pretty bummed this happened. Any ideas as to what I could do to prevent this in the future? I'm not entirely sure if it was the sphagnum moss that interfered with the babies climbing onto their mom or some other reason, nor am I sure if they were definitely lost or would've made it onto her back if I had just left them. I'm also assuming it wasn't due to stress because she didn't eat any of them once they were on her back, basically just some of them declined and fell off. I keep her on a mix of sand and peat moss that's mostly dry, with a moist side that has sphagnum moss and gets lightly misted every day, 80F. Any advice or thoughts on this would be appreciated.

The second part of this is I'm trying to breed a handful of US native scorpions and there's not a lot of information out there. In the Biology of Scorpions it says Uroctonus mordax mate in May, and Smeringurus mesaensis mate between May and October. Neither of my pairs have shown any interest in each other yet so I was wondering if anyone could confirm or give more information about seasonality, because most breeding guides I've seen don't mention season as being a factor in mating. I'm also trying to pair H silenus but again no success yet, they're not cohabed I've been introducing them to each other, and pair C. margaritatus but the male doesn't seem interested at all. I haven't attempted a pair yet, but I also have two Superstitionia donensis that I would love to attempt to breed, but there is very little information on these guys so any insights would be helpful. I'm not a complete newbie to getting moms safely through gestation and babies safely separated, I've had two Serradigitus gertschi broods, one Paravaejovis puritanus and two Paravaejovis spinigerus broods successfully birthed and separated, but I've never had a successful mating before so tips/advice would be appreciated. I am also pretty disappointed with what happened with my Hottentotta hottentotta so I also want to double check and make sure I'm not doing anything obviously wrong.

probably best to bare in mind that your scorpions are not going to breed as they would in the wild during certain times of the year. They can breed at any point when you have them in a terrarium.