Parabuthus Liosoma loves humidity

I mist one corner of my desert species tank and I've been happy to see my Hadrurus Arizonensis take a sip from the glass every month. My Leiurus Quinquestriatus also takes a little sip when I mist. She seems to ignore my water bottle cap and goes for beads of condensation like they are candy.

My issue is with my Parabuthus Liosoma is that when I mist a corner of late she plants herself in the visibly moist sand or right on the edge of the dew line. The humidity in her tank spikes to %65-%70 when I mist but she's right there until it dries up and beyond. As a test I misted an alternate corner over the last few days. Once each day and she is following the moisture around.

She doesn't appear to be pre molt. She looks very NOT huge the way GS's picture make pre molt out to be. When I got her she had a molt in her dealers deli cup so I'm fairly sure she isn't gravid.

What are the ideal humidity and temps for these desert beauties? it's usually under %50 in her tank. My HA's tank is currently %32 and I assume hers will hit those same numbers on average, perhaps a bit higher as I mist her every 3 weeks and him only once a month.

This is what she's doing. She also seems sluggish despite it being 80-85 F in there.

Is she an adult?
If yes, i would not suggest having her on moist substrate. Not even only a tiny portion dampen on the substrate's surface. As P.liosoma are one of those which might succumb to mycosis easily. Of course, with good ventilation, the chances will reduce.

My suggestion is pure bone dry substrate for 6.instar and onwards. Substrate may be dry pure sand or sand/coco fibre mixed (70/30) substrate. Always have a only a small drinking cap (preferably with small pebbles in it) at the center of the tank, filled once a week and let it dries up naturally.

However, for P.liosoma juveniles/sub-adults, they are slightly more tolerable to moisture on the substrate. And, they have the advantage of having incoming molts to "fix" any mild mycosis they might have.

Is she the recent P.liosoma you have posted via the thread below?
https://scorpionforum.darkbb.com/t9009-sexing-my-parabuthus-liosoma-and-leiurus-quinquestriatus

Yes it's the same girl from before.

As mentioned, for 2-5.instar, slight misting is still tolerable but not for 6/7.instar specimen. (Even though it seems like she prefer the moist side)

If you wish to have a closer estimation on her instar, just post a picture of her beside a ruler.

The coin in Yames's photo is 0.75 inch in diameter, so I would estimate her length to be 4 inches (10cm). I have a juvenile P. liosoma that exhibits the same behavior when I mist one side of her enclosure.

Since that picture was taken she looks much larger to me. So I'll look for a ruler I can fit into my tanks to make this sort of thing easier in the future. I'll have pictures up tonight.

Yames wrote:

I would like to know the approximate age of my 2 scorpions as well as have their sex confirmed by the group.

This is my P. li set up and pics.

Richard, you meant this photo posted by Yames above?

0.75 inch is about 1.9cm. I'll estimate her size to be around 6 to 6.5cm +/- during that picture was taken. Estimated to be 6.instar.

Even if it was well fed after that picture was taken and has an increase in mass, the total length could be around 7 to 7.5cm +/-.

Or maybe my age is catching up with me..

I find that liosoma under 4th instar need a good amount of humidity. 2i specimens can die from dehydration very easy. As adults, however, they thrive if their conditions are identical to transvaalicus. As an arid species, it's not unnatural for them to seek water whenever they can find it. However, this doesn't mean that regular exposure to high amounts of humidity isn't harmful for this species. I usually use a shallow water dish and fill is sparingly twice a month with the members of this genus that are available in the states and it's worked thus far. I have also made a mistake in giving Parabuthus transvaalicus too much water during a gestation period and it resulted in a small amount of mycosis, even with unrestricted ventilation. Ultimately it's your call on how much you water, but consider the possibilities of an error on the too much side (mycosis) versus the too little (no adverse effect) for adults. This is essentially my lengthy way of agreeing with GS's advice to you.

@GS: My mistake. I measured his Lq, oops.

I found a small pocket ruler and she was nice enough to line up right beside it and not run away

@Envyizm
Thanks for sharing

@shebeen
No worries, I made that mistake too. They look somewhat similar in those photos

@Yames
Thanks for the picture above.

So what's the verdict on her age estimate with my new updated picture. She has definitely grown since the last pic with the quarter. It looks like almost 12mm of added length? Or maybe I'm estimating it wrong.

I'll check on my specimens and give an exact reading soon.

So my last mist in her tank was the 5th as shown. It's now the 7th and she is eating or at least chewing sand from the misted corner. I hadn't heard that scorpions do this. I put the bottle cap of water back in as I'm off to work for the day and can't think munching on sand is a good thing. Here is a pic for proof.

Yames wrote:

I found a small pocket ruler and she was nice enough to line up right beside it and not run away



So what's the verdict on her age estimate with my new updated picture. She has definitely grown since the last pic with the quarter. It looks like almost 12mm of added length? Or maybe I'm estimating it wrong.

GS wrote:

7.instar Parabuthus liosoma

Yours could be 7.instar female.

So after all these days of my little girl grabbing crickets I put in the enclosure and then switching which claw she's holding it in then letting it go and running away from it. Tonight she acted all shy with the cricket but then finally ate it after passing it back and forth dropping it once or twice to give it chance to escape.

I took to giving the cricket a good pinching with my tweezers so it couldn't put up any real fight. She still moves slower then she used too. And I'm not thrilled to think she could be ill. But she ate again so things aren't all doom and gloom.