Lychas infuscatus: Very unexpected birth???

One of my Lychas infuscatus was recently discovered with a nice large brood on her back. I am very confused regarding this birth.

I first recieved this particular one on 9/19/2008. On 9/22/2008 it moulted. I has believed that it moulted from 3i to 4i. The entire time I have kept this specimen by itself (with some rare exceptions I keep most of collection individually). All of containers are clearly marked with common name, scientific name, pet name, age, sex, humidity required, temp required, and ratings for speed, agressive, and toxicity. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track feedings and take notes. I track what it was fed, how many, how many it ate, notes about food refusal, if it looks gravid or premoult, etc.

It last ate a single pinhead cricket on 1/5/2009.

On 1/12/2009 I noted that this specimen appeared to be premoult and I believed it was about to go to 5i. I skipped feeding.

Tonight (1/20/2009), I noticed a vary large brood of babies on her back (I never sexed her up to this point, but this makes it very clear!). This also seems to indicate that she is adult. She is smaller than a couple other L. infuscatus that I have which is why I thought she was not mature.

So is it possible this species is able to self reproduce as the Tityus serrulatus can? Or is possible it mated premoult and held the sperm until sexual maturity?

There are no Lychas spp. that are known to be parthenogenic. Contact your local college or university's department of zoology and ask around, maybe you have some useful information for someone.

I have heard of scorpions retaining sperm across molts, so that's another possibility.

Wow, very interesting.

yet another weird birth case I'm gonna try to put all the post from here and AB about molt/birts. There really isn't any explaining it. It could have retained speremed. It could f been gravid BEFORE it molted. It probably a very rare partho case. Who knows.

See...this is what makes scorpions so much more interesting than just getting a goldfish