A week ago I bought a pre-molt, subadult female emp. Last night I decided it was time to introduce her to my male. I placed the two in a 25-gallon tank to make observation easier, and put in two hides. The female walked over to the male and poked him a few times with her palps. The male started stroking her sides with his telson (seemingly going out of his way *not* to sting her) and poking her with his palps. This went on for nearly half an hour, and at random intervals the male would start shaking for a few seconds, then continue "flirting" as if nohing happened. They have since been sharing a hide, and pretty much stick together outside the hide.

Some people think I'm crazy for saying this, but it's amazing how "cute" scorpions can be at times. It's a shame my camera was on the charger at the time

Just a little side question, is it possible for a subadult female to become gravid? (Not that I have to wait long anyway, that molt's coming really soon.)

Nah, it must be adult before it can become gravid.

Does the shaking mean anything particular ? I seen this in my scorp with no female. Probably not the same shake, but like you had a chill run up your spine type shake.

That's the same shake my male does. Never seen a female do it before.

My smaller scorps do it now and again. Don't quote me on this but i think it's something to do with defensive behaviour because they only ever do it when there is a sudden movement in front of the tank.

It's called "juddering" and it's usually part of courtship.

Courtship juddering in Uroctonus mordax:


More complicated juddering -- "don't eat me" on the part of the male, "get the hell out" on the part of the female:

oh, my scorps juddering is different to that. They do it exactly on the spot and just sort of shake for a second then stop and repeat a couple of times.

Aye yeh, my male SMP does juddering every single night without fail I can hear it when I am lying in bed. Seen him do it a few times too.

He just sits there, and bangs his ventral side up down on the floor a few times, for a couple of seconds. It's quite cute.

The female SMP is underneath his tub, so I assume he can sense her. She never ever judders. Though they recently mated, he still judders nightly!

Mine was slightly different from those two, but it looked closer to the courtship juddering. Fortunately for him the new female is more gentle than the other two. XD

EDIT: Little update on the pair. I went to pick the pair up for a routine mite check, and the male instantly went into attack mode. He even tried to sting me in the process. My guess is he's trying to protect the female while she's so fragile. (Still premolt.)

Here's a pic of the pair. The female (Tank) is sleeping on top of Steppenwolf. ^^

Nice picture.
Make sure you get some pics once molted (or during the process if you're lucky)

Will do.

Poor Steppenwolf, had that fatty sleeping on top of him.... XD Tank does this frequently now. And Steppenwolf just lets her, almost like a mom and her baby. Tank's a one-scorp brood in herself!

Do you have any hides in there?

There are two cave hides. Though they've been sharing one since I introduced them.

Ok, cool, just wanted to check.