Worlds largest?

[Scolopeon]

What the hell is this species of Scorp shown in this video, it looks like a Heterometrus but the carapace and body are very bulky looking. The thinner claws mark it out to be an Asian species.

Part of me think it is a joke, could be a plastic toy or something.

It is shown at 4.30 in the video.

 

[Christianb96]

Idk what that is but the largest scorpion is the heterometrus swammerdammi. I believe the biggest recorded was 9in.

 

[ArachnoDrew]

Almost looks fake but @Collin Clary is the expert

 

[vespers]

That's obviously a toy...

 

[ArachnoDrew]

The legs are pretty funny haha

 

[RTTB]

Someone had too much time their hands.

 

[Collin Clary]

Yeah, that's a toy, lol.

There are a few species that all get quite large and comparable in size: Pandinus imperator, Pandinus gambiensis, and Heterometrus swammerdami. All of these species are usually around 14 cm long, with some exceedingly large specimens reaching roughly 20 cm.

Two other species that can also get quite large, but are usually slightly smaller than the aforementioned species are Pandinus dictator and Heterometrus flavimanus.

Male Hadogenes species are sometimes longer in absolute length due to their extremely elongated metasomas, however they're not nearly as bulky.

 

[ArachnoDrew]

20cm geeze that's a beast

 

[AP34]

@Collin Clary's post answered the question in the thread, but I wanted to chime in. Per the available species descriptions of the Pandinus and Heterometrus genera available on the Scorpion Files website, Pandinus imperator would be considered the largest, being listed at up to 230 mm body length: http://www.onychium.it/sites/default/files/articoli/Rossi_2014b_onychium10_0.pdf. Heterometrus swammerdami was described as reaching up to 176 mm in this study: http://www.science.marshall.edu/fet/euscorpius/p2004_15.pdf. In the pet trade, from what I've seen online at least, is that the H. swammerdami appear to be larger than the P. imperator, but I guess that's probably because most imperator in the pet trade are smaller individuals-- supposedly a different, "savannah" ecomorph. Don't know if anybody has more information on that. The Guinness world record holder was a H. swammerdami specimen, but I'm not convinced that should be very important.

P. gambiensis was described as reaching up to 200 mm. Anybody seen a P. gambiensis specimen before?

 

[Collin Clary]

I've seen a couple dead P. gambiensis preserved in alcohol. Roughly the same size as average specimens of P. imperator, probably around 13-14 cm. The two species are nearly indistinguishable. The papers by František Kovařík have P. imperator down as reaching lengths of 220 mm.

Rossi may have 230 mm listed, but given that he apparently has a propensity for writing about specimens he has never actually examined, I would take that with a grain of salt, even if it's close to the max listed by other authors.

I've also personally seen Heterometrus swammerdami that were larger than 176 mm, and equally I've seen pictures of H. flavimanus that were larger than 150 mm.

I don't put much credibility in Guinness World Records.