Two-tailed T. falconensis born

[Nazgul]

Hi,

some days ago one of females gave birth to a bunch of scorplings of which one turned out to be two-tailed. The regarding specimen has two metasomas with 4 segments each, both metasomas are sharing the first segment. The specimen feeds properly and seems to be healthy apart from the mutation. Unfortunately my camera isn´t good enough to shoot better pictures of such a small object. If the specimen will succeed in molting the second time, better pics are to follow.

 

[Frogsarethapoop]

If it reaches maturity, put it on Ebay and set the minimum to $10k, well maybe $5k.

 

[quiz]

cute specimen and very rare . I wonder if this guy will use both stinger to paralyze it's prey.

 

[fusion121]

Very interesting Alex. What percentage of all scorplings you've produced does this constitute (approx.)?

 

[Raan_Jodus]

finally an heir to the two tailed throne. I hope it molts fine, with any luck it should live a normal life. Best part would be living to maturity, and possibly passing on that trait, that would be an interesting experiment.

Good luck

 

[EAD063]

Another set of pediplaps and he'd be styling. Very interesting Alex, as usual!:clap: Now we need a two tailed L.Q. that we can call the deadliest individual in the world. LOL

 

[Dom]

Cool little scorp!
There's nothing wrong with the quality of your pics BTW (wish mine came out so nicely).

 

[alkarlosse]

Amazing Good luck raising it, I hope it reaches adulthood.

Though I doubt it could pass on this mutation, I hope it does!

 

[Gigas]

I have only heard of two tailed Centruroides till now (3 of the cases were exilicauda) hope it makes it to adult hood

 

[HackoDis]

There was another scorpion born with two tails many years ago.

Here's the link:

http://www.sasionline.org/pepe.htm

The scorpion died, not because of a poor molt. But due to poor Shipping conditions

 

[Tityus]

Hi Alex,

Rare to see this I hope it reaches maturity and give no problem with molting.

 

[Vixvy]

Lucky! I too had a M.martensii with two prosoma it has 2 pairs of pincers. but sadly it died 3days after it was born. hay....

 

[Nazgul]

Hi,

pretty interesting indeed. All two-tailed specimens being mentioned in the paper by Sissom & Shelly had two "normal" tails with 5 segments each which branched off the 7th mesosoma segment. A specimen with an anomaly like that seems to be pretty unique.

@Oliver: approximately 0,04 - 0,05% maybe, probably even less, that´s just an estimation. Sissom & Shelley are citing a study by Brauer on 5000 specimens of E. germanus which had the result of 0,02%.

@Gigus: there are other genera reported having given birth to two-tailed specimens than just Centruroides, mostly buthids.

 

[Zman16]

Thats amazing! Scientists say that these kinds of things are hereditery. I hope he grows to be an adult!

 

[Galapoheros]

AWESOME!! Let us know how it goes as it molts! That is is really cool:clap: .

 

[Thaedion]

some days ago one of females gave birth to a bunch of scorplings of which one turned out to be two-tailed. The regarding specimen has two metasomas with 4 segments each, both metasomas are sharing the first segment.

Hallo Nazgul;

Glückwünsche on your unique scorpling. :clap:

I have a few questions out of curiosity, if you care to entertain them. ¿ Is one tail predominate and the other subordinate? ¿ Does each tail act independent or do they act in unison? ¿ Is there any deformity in the secondary tail? (such as in side-show animal mutations ie a 5th leg but totally useless)

Thanks for the pictures this is the first I've ever 'seen' one of these two tailed scorpions. (well seeing one from a source who you can trust didn't doctor it up it PS)

Respekt, Thaedion

 

[Ythier]

Great new Alex ! Take care of this specimen !

 

[HackoDis]

The arcticle i read about the two tailed scorpion, said it used it's left pincer to hold down the prey. Then it used it's right tail to kill it.

 

[Michiel]

This is very rare........like Tityus said, I hope it will molt in a good fashion! Good luck with this strange one.....

 

[Nazgul]

Hi,

the right tail seems to be the dominant one, although I didn´t have time to watch the specimen sting prey yet. Both tails can be moved independently. There are no deformities apart from the fact that both metasomas are consisting of only 4 segments.

I don´t think it´s hereditary. In Sissom & Shelley it´s mentioned Brauer came to the conclusion that such an anomaly results from splitting of the posterior part of the embryonic germ band. I haven´t read Brauer´s study yet though, I still have to receive it.