A Look Inside the Mouth!

My scorpion (P. Cavimanus) has been opening his mouth facing the glass recently... very strange. Has anyone seen this? He lifts his two chelicerae and I can see about half an inch or so into his mouth, I've never seen this before (my previous emperor never did it that i saw). It's very impressive, I think he may be hungry, but he's been fed a decent bit, hehe. Anyone seen anything strange with their scorp's mouth? Just another part that makes them a very special animal.

Probably grooming or drinking water off the glass. I had a pococoki drink water off his chela.

He's just standing like normal with claws out, I can just... look into his open mouth... kinda neat.

I opened the lid to Bertha's (my very gravid C.vitti) enclosure this eve and she raised up like she wanted a hug - I wish I could have gotten some footage of that, it was very amusing

That's -- kinda weird. Think you can get a shot of that?

No idea what he's doing, though. Probably trying to confuse you.

I did get a shot... but the only way I could get it is blacklit, lemme go look at them and possibly post it on up here... if he does it again I will see if I can get a pic... hard no place to set up camera near the tank, and not too steady of a hand. It is REALLY cool to look into btw... There's almost perfect room for a cricket to fit, hehe...

Okay, here's the pictures:

Damn, that's creepy-looking! It's like some gaping maw of doom to the underworld!

Yep, I've already decided while showing that to my girlfriend what my next personal scorp-art project will be... super freaky.

is it hungry? could that be what its hinting to you?!?

I would just say its being strange or drinking water off the side of the glass

xxxxxxx

I would think hungry... if I didn't just feed him...

scorps do the weirdst things... he might just be relaexing or something.. i whould take too much notice to it

Oh, I'm not saying he's doing anything crazy or wierd... I just think it looks awesome because I've never seen a scorpion roar/yawn before... it just looked so cool.

heh try getting a hissing scorpion pissed.. thats fun

Do they hiss in the same way roaches do?

not as loud but you can hear it had a R.junceus male hiss at me when i made they "home" not so long ago..

Scorpions stridulate a few different ways -- large forest scorpions rub their chelicerae together, and some middle-eastern hots rub their telson along a specific area of the mesasoma.

Hissing roaches (G. portentosa, anyway) hiss by forcing air out of their spiracles, so it's more like a "true" hiss. Some larger winged roaches can rub their wings to produce a hissing sound, which is more akin to stridulation (some mantids do the same thing).

Thanks Mike! I got a hissing roach the other day (Tenacious did not want to eat it) and while I was holding it with tweezers it couldn't hiss cause it could not 'catch its breath' it was interesting...

They also quit hissing when they don't feel they're in danger any more.

It's frustrating at the BugZoo -- we'll grab roaches that hiss a bunch, but by the time the kids show up they've all calmed down and are quiet.

hahaha... you should just put em in a shoe box to bring out and shake it up a bunch!

IHeartMantids wrote:

They also quit hissing when they don't feel they're in danger any more.

It's frustrating at the BugZoo -- we'll grab roaches that hiss a bunch, but by the time the kids show up they've all calmed down and are quiet.

I just poke mine abit then they start again, or start to grab them with 2 fingers.. that makes them go alot.. and btw some stick insects can allso make hisses

cool...... the mouth of hell!!