My Liocheles australasiae collection

Hey ppl, promised I'd post my L. aus setup as soon as I get some decent pics, well here they are. I have a feeling some of this might belong in the enclosure section but I felt the need to deliver the whole 9 yards so moderators bear with me, I'll relocate on request.

First off, the alcove (shelf)


Adult enclosures comprising of 6 adults; (front, close-up and back showing 3 of them)

This setup was inspired my SkinheadDave's gracilis community tank; cheers


Side view showing one of them slurping down a mealworm

They tend to designate themselves to specific territories (1 back per scorpion)

Some blacklight shot of the adults



The scorplings are housed in commercially available betta tanks which prove ideal nurseries. The 1st one is an earlier pic of a small scorpling.

The blacklight shots are more current of the same scorplings at 4th to 5th instar


Fresh moults



You can also see the size comparison with mealworm, smaller ones are capable of taking them down through team work. The vertical bark setup was aimed ar replicating the conditions of the habitat they were collected (under the bark of standing trees).

Sweet setups! Kinda sucks that everyone hangs out at the back, though.

LXDNG79 wrote:

I have a feeling some of this might belong in the enclosure section . . .

Nah, that's only if all you have is a few enclosure pics with no related questions or suggestions. The whole nine yards deserves its own thread.

awesome! these scorps remind me of Iomachus politus... thier bodies are so out proportion lol.

The only one I had left died today....out in the open stilting I think she was trying to give birth. She had been gravid for some time. I might autopsy later on today see if I can save them.

Eddie... Are Liocheles aus... commercially available in pet stores in the States? (Jeez how much do they cost?) Or can you find them in random sites? I wouldn't be surprised if they turned up in the most unlikely places...

Infamous hitchhikers, there is a far-fetched theory I read somewhere about scorplings displacing themselves by climbing on the larger flying insects like longhorn beetles.... very much like psuedo-scorps... Basis for this is saturation of colonies inhabiting a particular tree.

I wouldn't call myself an expert but I'll gladly provide any insight that anyone might find worth considering... Whenever I've encountered L. aus colonies there are a number of criteria that I have observed to be reliably consistent:

Individuals or groups found in felled logs or trees, seem to add to the widely conceived notion that these are the most ideal environments for them... i.e. waigiensis I beg to differ... In such cases, I've found a handful of stray individuals...

However colonies I've encountered under barks of standing tress tend to number in incalculable proportions. In one particular case, me and a friend chanced upon a patch of trees in a countryside... One of the trees we found Liocheles aus by the hundreds mostly juves and ample number of large adults... By contrast we found not a single specimen in any of the other surrounding trees... i.e. among a clump of roughly 12 trees spaced an average of 12 paces from each other, a concentration of Liocheles australasiae was found only on one single tree. Another apparent feature provided a particularly strong indication as to why this was so... It was also the only tree in that clump that was infested with termites i.e. abundant food source... I will post an article on hike and hunts on Liocheles hunting soon.

As of now based on my experience, I recommend anyone keeping Liocheles australasiae to go with vertical/arboreal setups... Yea as Mike commented, it kinda sucks that they all choose to hang out at the back but... the these scorps seem to thrive better in these conditions... Plus, my L. aus tanks are small and convenient to rotate for monitarial inspection...I will post the breeding reports one I have sufficient data to confirm various hypothesis...

Once I achieve a stable breeding colony, I will gladly send all you guys and gals breed-ready pathogens... so cheer up Eddie

P.S. how come my signature never comes up? (newbie)

You have to click a button on your signature options to make it show up each time you post.

I'll fix your sig don't worry I got my from the phillpines and I had them semi-arobreal. My gravid L. waigensis died this morning too. I think my brother is doing this our of revenge. I already hide all my precious ones.

Sig is working now.

Thnks Eddie {test}

Do you collect warhammer or something? just wondering because of the sig.

Loved reading White Dwarf for the stories and plots but never bought a miniature before... Love the Tyranids though...

My Avatar and Sig is more attributed to StarCraft Massive Zerg player

ah, just wondering. looks kinda similar to the thing on the front of the codex.

Went on a short trip with Alex last night and made with 9 liocheles of varying sizes. The large tree we found them in probably had hundreds, but why collect more than you can sustain alive at home? A good tool to carry along is a blacklight, makes the whole arduous 'hide and seek' part less tiring.

These guys make they're habitat under dried/semi dried pieces of peeling bark skin. Although some forums call them a communal species, Alex and me found out that they may be 'communal but not communal' - as he would aptly put it. We placed them in a small cuboid aquarium with pieces of vertical barks in place as hides for the little ones(same as the ones posted in this thread). Upon returning home, 2 of the 9 smaller more actively roaming scorpions became supper for their cagemates. Cannibalism occurs probably due to one of two reasons. One was due to the scorpion being hungry, or the second more logical reason is as we theorized was due to territorial behaviour. To each scorpion her own. Trespassers are dealt with almost immediately.

I also spent another hour back at home experimenting with the specimens that were found to be chowing down they're 'neighbours'. The cannibals seem to almost instantaneously switch food items when I slid a small mealworm down the bark. They either prefer dining on mealworms or they were just being hungry and territorial at the same time?

And owh, we also found a Common Wolf Snake (Lycodon capucinus) in the tree. Wahaha.

Note: Fogive me for being excited. Thanks for sharing the experience with me Alex.

oh to be able to go out scorpion hunting.... damn british red tape and all that shizz!

rafiqos wrote:

Alex and me found out that they may be 'communal but not communal' - as he would aptly put it.

"They're always communal until they're not."

What I do find particular interesting is the fact that they designate a particular section as their territory. The scorplings I've raised define a territory in clumps that are virtually next to each other and when one moves, it triggers some sort of chain reaction.

Adults in my enclosures seem content at sticking to one particular piece of bark. If another crawls onto the bark even from the other-side, the resident owner is alerted and prepares itself to expect a trespasser or prey item.