Scorpion Trip

I had the chance to help South Africa's top scorpion researcher(Ian Engelbrecht) in the field with collecting samples for studies and for photos as well of course The photos are also contributed to the ScorpionMap project which helps with identifying the distribution range of species in South Africa.
It was a six day trip through parts of the Klein Karoo area in the Western Cape in South Africa. We saw many species throughout the trip and I will divide the posts into each day I was out there so that I don't overload the topic at the start.
Hope you guys like it
The first three species were collected before I joined up with the researcher.
First up is a scorpion I regularly see.
Opisthacanthus capensis:



Second was Uroplectes lineatus:





Then lastly a very scarce species, a first for me.
Male Opistophthalmus chaperi:



Female O.chaperi:



The first day we only started late so we were only looking for one species, Opistophthalmus karooensis.

Male O.karooensis:






Chela of O.karooensis male:



Female O.karooensis:



Chela of O.karooensis female:



O.karooensis habitat:




I will add the rest of the photos in the next few days.

Awesome scorpions. Im looking forward to seeing more.

I've never really been interested in Opistophthalmus spp since i once had a pair of O. boehmi and never saw them......but those Opistophthalmus karooensis look so utterly different with their colouration, habitus and peculiar blending of morphological features that i've just simply got to have a pair .. That habitat picture is very good too. It holds a wealth of information for anyone lucky enough to have these.

Unfortunately though, the last time i heard those were for sale was when a young Churchill escaped the Boer and picked up a couple of hitch hikers in his riding boots.......not

Keep them coming shadowfoot...very interesting stuff

Thanks guys.
The Opistophthalmus definitely get interesting when you look in the right places. I have a few more Opistophthalmus sp photos to share because they were our main focus.

Day 2&3
These two days we were in the Oudtshoorn area, our main focus being Opistophthalmus pictus.
Day 2 we didn't have any luck but we found a few other things that were quite interesting.

Opisthacanthus diremptus:



Here you can see how flat they are because of the places where they decide to hide:



This is the kind of place where they hide, very much similar to Hadogenes habitat.



Typical Male Uroplectes carinatus:



Then we also found the pale form of U.carinatus as well:




Parabuthus planicauda:



Some habitat shots of where you find U.carinatus, P.planicauda and O.karooensis as well:







On day 3 we finally managed to find some Opistophthalmus pictus after bad luck on day 2.

Female O.pictus:



Male and female O.pictus next to each other.Female top and male bottom:



Ventral shot:



O.pictus burrow:



And their habitat:

Jezz that O.karooensis look beautiful. I want it!

O.karooensis are definitely one of the coolest scorps ever, with an attitude to match!

I frickin love these pictures! We should add a habitat thread to the photo directory (if anybody is still running that). The O. karooensis is really pretty, so is the Parabuthus,

Thanks.
Well, my photos are always here if they are needed

Patcho, you are officially in charge of the directory.you hace acess to the staff section and the only active mod at the moment. Make us proud! text me if you need instruction you might be able to find them on the staff discussion section. Do as you please with the directory but my suggestion is instead of a habitat section we can label the pictures with a sub tittle *IN HABITAT

Day 4
We mostly spent day 4 making our way to the top of the Swartberg mountain range. We found the usual suspects on our way to the top, O.karooensis, U.carinatus and Opisthacanthus diremptus.
We also found a few of these special guys all along the way.
Uroplectes marlothi:

Day 5&6
Probably the best part of the trip. We were a town called Prince Albert on this day and you could definitely call it scorpion heaven. We were also joined by 4 Nature Conservation students that came to help out in the field, it made looking for scorpions a lot easier
First up was a undescribed Opistophthalmus species, either O.crassimanus or part of the O.pictus group.
This was was the only male we found and looks like he came back from a war, missing aculeus, tarsus and a piece of his claw.



Female:





Burrow:



Habitat:






Then came the UV lighting and we hit the jackpot

A weird little Uroplectes sp we believe to be U.schlechteri:

Female U.schlechteri:





Male U.schlechteri, notice the elongated metasomal segments, a characteristic of U.schlechteri:





Then my first Hadogenes, uknown species, probably H.trachyurus.
(Copyright Kenny Babilon)



I will end off with two awesome species.

Female Parabuthus capensis:





Female Parabuthus schlechteri:



Hope you guys liked the photos

We LOVE the photos man! Awesome shots!

Excellent "true scorpion" picture of P. capensis...

Thanks guys
Yeah, you can see the marks in the sand around the P.capensis, really had to contain that one lol.

Great pics man.

Meanwhile I'm practically drooling on the keyboard from those Parabuthus and Opistophthalmus karooensis.

Scorpion19981000 wrote:

Great pics man.

Meanwhile I'm practically drooling on the keyboard from those Parabuthus and Opistophthalmus karooensis.

+100000

Add me ti the karooensis waiting list!!

Great set of pics

Awesome pics as usual! I'm jealous! I want to come to SA!

Thanks guys.

robert44 wrote:

Awesome pics as usual! I'm jealous! I want to come to SA!

I have so far only scratched the surface when it comes to how many species of SA scorps I've seen, it truly is paradise for guys like us lol.