Opinion: Most undervalued/underrated genus/species?

Something new! I dont post questions often, but I'd like to get the community's opinion on what genus/species they really think is fascintating, and is pretty unpopular, or taken for granted.

Mine would be the Hadogenes genus. Theyre long lived for a scorpion! Most only live a few years! Theyre colorful, not very toxic, and allow for great display tanks. And theyre fairly low maintenance, and will forgive husbandry mistakes due to their hardiness. They're not very social, even as adults, which is a real letdown. Some have had success, and other have had their males become lunch.

However, being slow growing and heavily imported, as well as not a fat tailed buthid, they get a pass as a beginner scorp that will always be around. Everyone said that about emps, and now where are they? I have a pair of paucidens im breeding, as well as six cbb 5i troglodytes.

On my side, Hottentotta hottentotta is the most undervalued and taken for granted scorp. There is too much circulating in our markets making the demand for them almost nil.

Where I'm at, it's centruroides hentzi. Here these guys are a dime a dozen. They're considered a pest and aren't even on the market that I know of (at least in my local). My local pet store owner finds them in her mail box all the time. She is supposed to bring them to me when she finds them. As far as I know I'm one of only a few on this forum that have expressed interest in them. But I love them.

I dont see a lot of Buthus spp being discussed or photographs posted. It is a local species here so it is forbidden to collect and keep, but they have the wildest character I have ever experienced in scorpions and dont know why they are not captive bred more.

Attain a pretty nice size and will tolerate some humidity unlike other desert species and have thick telson.

The european varieties venom is weaker than the ones found in africa so an intermediate species

Hadogenes sp. without a doubt.

I see these species overlooked many times, especially a a beginner scorpion.
I always recommend Hadogenes sp. to every beginner who wants another option then the tropical burrowers.

As some know I am a big fan of Hadogenes, and I absolutely love the color, the behavior and the overall appearance of the scorpion.



Joey

I hope we have a lot of hadogenes sp. here coz other me only 4 other people keeps them. They're pretty hard to come by here

Ship your unwanted hadogenes here haha

Most of the several native californian species..

pseudouroctonus, Uroctonites, serradigitus, paruroctonus, and let's not forget Vaejovis.


I always liked native US scorpions alot more than the foreign species..


Paruroctonus has some awesome species, a few are dune specialists, and are very similar to the ever-so-popular Smeringerus mesaensis

The easiest way to view underrated scorpions are the ones we see year after year, but are never, or rarely captive bred. As said above, Buthus and Buthacus, Hottentotta trilineatus, Hadogenes, and then our locals as said above. Have any of you taken on breeding projects of any undervalued species for your own enjoyment as a hobbyist? Remember, the more captive programs come around, the less we rely on wild caught imports and can be self sustaining like the tarantula hobby.

I've got a pair of wild caught C. Hentzi and I'm betting that the female is prego. I'm very much looking forward to seeing if she's going to birth any young this spring. As soon as she gives birth, I intend to keep an ongoing colony and trade. But that's a long way off.

I would go with Opistophthalmus, hugely underrated imo. Some might be pet holes but of all my scorps they probably have the most character about them. They are considered difficult to breed and raise but I have seen people have success with them so it's not impossible.

They are quite large too, as I saw on a TV show the other day. May be an option once i stock up on a few more buthids I am after

shadowfoot wrote:

I would go with Opistophthalmus, hugely underrated imo. Some might be pet holes but of all my scorps they probably have the most character about them. They are considered difficult to breed and raise but I have seen people have success with them so it's not impossible.

I was going to mention Opistophthalmus, but I see you got to it first. So I second that.  

thegromgrom wrote:

Have any of you taken on breeding projects of any undervalued species for your own enjoyment as a hobbyist? Remember, the more captive programs come around, the less we rely on wild caught imports and can be self sustaining like the tarantula hobby.

Sure! I'm working on a first generation captive born breeding project with Smeringurus mesaensis just for fun. I've got 4 of them left, but I intend on raising them all to full adulthood.