Caught 3 Live Ones !!!!!!

Hi again all

Well i enjoyed myself so much i went out again yesterday and stayed the night was walking in the countryside for 2 days looking for Scorpions. The good news is i Found loads .......ALIVE i saw all together about 11 or 12 but i only collected 3.
most that i saw looked very similar to the dead one they were yellowish with a slightly darker back with small variations in marking like 2 orange stripes on the brown back.
I took 2 yellow ones with me and i also collected one black one. the black one is a baby and everyone who saw it said its one of the more dangerous ones but that there is another black one more dangerous then it.
i will try to get a camera and take some photos tonight and send them on to Venom (if thats ok venom?) tomorrow. i also found a huge berber skink which i caught but let go and what looked like a baby berber skink later on
i also found a few differant spiders but nothing over an inch in size ( one interesting burrowing one with a trap tunnel bit like a trap door spider but not anywhere near as big.
will try to salvage what photos i can from my phone and also get some of the scorpions tonight and let you all know Also the wife is freaking out abit having them in the house which might be bad news for my long term desires to keep scorpions i will have to wait and see

Awesome!!

I can't wait to see the pictures.

The "more dangerous" black one is probably A. mauritanicus -- very desirable in the hobby.

nice catch! dengerous, you say...........

Can't wait to see the photos! I bet you had fun!

Congrats!
Your little trip sounds lovely.
About the wife thing, It`s easier to be forgiven, than to get permission

Regards
Robin

I got dibs on the black on ... Cant wait to see the pics. If youd like to send the pics to the admins one of us can post it up for you.
scorpion.admin.team@gmail.com

ooh sounds like you had a nice little hunt and came back with some goodies.

Just make sure everything you have is nicely secure in their tanks! that way the wife will be more confident and happy about having them in the house
xxx

Forget the wife, scorpions are more important.

ok sending the pics now to the admin address

bit of info the two yellows are feeding fine have taken crickets flies moths et and eaten like 2 a day the smaller one is quite nice and co operates with me when moving and feeding etc. the big one is a MONSTER lol he attacks and stings anything i put near him i was trying to move dead bits of crickets from his container and he was stinging the tweezers i was using relentlessly he is a real beast and i cant move him as he wont comply
as for the black one he is quite small i thing juvenile and he does not eat he kills the cricket but doesn't eat it and he stays burrowed under a slate all the time i am a little bit worried about him let me know if you think its bad that he doesn't eat and what i should do? i am thinking to release them back to where i found them today as to not hurt them??? what do you all think???

Working on the pics right now . . .

The little black one may be in premolt; scorps quit eating all the time and it's nothing to worry about.

I'm really leaning towards A. mauritanicus for the black one. Beautiful specimens, Umar!

The first one is an Androctonus sp., probably A.mauritanicus like Mike said. Judging by the size of the metasoma it could very well be an adult. And because there is no visible gap on the fixed finger of the pedipalp it's a female.
The other scorpions are one of the many native Buthus species. I have no papers about Buthus spp. from Morocco and can't help you to ID them. But I know someone who might be able to help you. I will ask him to visit the forum when he has time.

I tried estimating the pectine teeth on the Androctonus and came up with 22 -- if it's indeed A. mauritanicus, then it would confirm it being a female.

http://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1245zq4.jpg

Check that out.. thats a Buthus occitanus mardochei and the secound sp on does pictures whould be a Buthus occitanus ssp

might even be Buthus occitanus mardochei since does are from Morroco

so if the yellow ones are Buthus occitanus mardochei then what does that mean venom wise? if i can tell the wife its only mild it might mean i can hold on to them

as for the black one you think this might be an adult all the locals who saw it said it was real small? and he does look quite small to me? just wondering.

i read on the boards they stop eating when gravid? there is no chance it is gravid is there? my wife would kill me if it dropped 20 odd little scorpions hehehe

It's hard to tell how big it is without knowing how large the jar it's in is. Skywalker thought it was an adult by the size of the tail -- it's possible it's a subadult.

Oh, and Androctonus can have a LOT more than 20 babies. I don't think your wife would want to know how potent it is, either . . . it has the second most powerful venom of any scorpion (drop for drop). BUT, as Nagash said, that species is only responsible for about 60 to 120 deaths out of 40,000 stings each year.

Not sure about the other species, though.

And if you don't want to keep the Androctonus, I know quite a few people who would be willing to take it off your hands. I for one only have males of that species.

well anyone who wants to buy from me let me know what you want and where to send etc i will find out about best way to send im happy to catch for people and send as long as it dont cost me money and if i make some cash that a bonus hehehe if its worth my time i might even be persuaded to travel to find area specific specamins for you
i think i can get bicolour also from the descriptions i have had a larger very very black scorpion so i might try find one the weather is hotting up now and they all come out to play in the heat is what i heard.
as for the small black one its about an inch, inch and half long.the smaller yellow one that i like to think is a girl is a bit bigger than that and the monster one obviously a male because he is mental hehehe is a good 2 inches i would say if not a bit bigger

oh sorry forgot to say how do you normally send these guys? pics of containers sent in and ventalation etc would be cool and what about food water heat while in transit????

Shipping is pretty simple, you just pack a plastic deli cup with paper towels, put the scorpion in, and put more paper towels in and then the lid. Holes poked in the side is enough for ventilation, and they'll be ok for a few days without food or water in transit.

You can also line the shipping box with newspaper or styrofoam before putting the deli cup in to help insulate it.

Edit: The only tricky part would be a customs declaration; I don't think it would go through if you wrote "scorpion" on it. Maybe "educational materials"?

well thats pretty simple ...... well put your orders in then hehehe but seriously pm me or something if you want a certain scorpion and ill do my best for you.
as for these three i need to now tonight really if anyone wants them as i am thinking of releasing them tomorrow not 100% but is looking that way so pm me or email me on umarkirk@hotmail.co.uk
cant wait till next month should be able to find some real interesting scorpions