Caraboctonus keyserlingi

There is little (no) information on sexing this species so I had to try many different ways, but i have found a reliable one. For those unfamiliar with the species, it is a meager 2.5" long, and its pectines are maybe 1cm across, making teeth nearly impossible to count. I quickly ruled this method out, as i had no firm counts on teeth anyways. The only advice I got was "the males have more bulbous claws". Well, when the claws are smaller than a grain of rice it is quite hard to define "bulbous". With no large or small scale dimorphism in sight, i thought I was screwed.

I got to taking a closer look at the pectine and genital operculum together as a whole, looking for over all shape, as this can some time be a dead give away. Firstly, even seeing the pectines was hard, let alone the genital operculum. I have settled on this, the placement of the pectinal fins in relation to the base of the operculum and their general orientation as the best way to sex this species.

Keep in mind pectines are by no means rigid, so some shifting in and out of place is common.

Now, follow my crappy drawing below. It is the underside of the scorpion, minus the legs, lungs, everything except the pectines. It isn't designed to be realistic, to scale, or life like, but to give you an idea of how the pectines are drastically different in positioning in the sexes. Similar configurations can be found in other species, so as of now, i am declaring this officially the easiest and fastest way to accurately sex this species.

vs.

Very different indeed.

Ok, I got one of these pretty ones, would this one be then... male ? Jus need to know, should I find a bride or fiance to him/her

Based on the sketch, I'd say male.

this is quite cool, have you successfully mated and bred this species based on this method?
would be interesting to see some documentation and pics of that.