Identification

I found this scorpion in a mountainous area near the Kruger national park in South Africa, the mountain was very rocky but there were a few forests here and there. I spotted quite a few under rocks so they are plentiful. I am trying to figure out what species it is and at what humidity to keep it. I have also heard that you can overfeed a scorpion and I don't want to find out the hard way.
This scorpion has a very good temperament and looks very cool.
I found this scorpion near a eucalyptus tree and so I took some of the eucalyptus leaves to put in its terrarium, I also put some of the leaves in my tarantula terrarium. After three days the cages smell fresh and minty( the tarantula cage used to smell bad)

Are the brown colourings mud, or is it actually mottled brown?

Yes it's mud the scorpion is pure black.

p.imperator?



regards sam

Not sure... It's not P.imp, look at the shape of the chela.

Hmmm.. I was thinking het. sp but i'm not sure.

One of the moderators will probs be able to help.

Hmm, the claws do look a little different from P. imp. I am not sure either...

could you get a closer look at the chelae please?

thanks sam

looks like a juvenile from that shot, need a shot of it stretched out. If it actually is a juvi like i think it is, it could be one of a number of species as alot of 2i/3i look alike. But purely from your locality info and the limited look at it i would have to purely guess Lisposoma elegans or something of that sort. Again would need a better pic plus a juvi doesn't usually have a 100% ID from most.

Emps live in west Africa (the region) not South Africa (the country). At first guess I'd wager some sort of Opistophthalmus sp.. Most of the pics I turn up are golden-colored but a few are darker like this.

Probably going to need a clearer picture in any case.

I will try to take a better picture when the fellow appears again. It is definitely a juvenile . I was thinking maybe a Hadogenes.

Okay I have taken a bit better picture(I hope) the problem is that my camera is not made to focus so near.

Mr. Mordax wrote:

At first guess I'd wager some sort of Opistophthalmus sp..

i agree from the second pic, but what do i know lol!

Opisthacanthus are also from South Africa, from pictures I have seen they kinda look like Opistophthalmus just darker.

Opistophthalmus got longer metasoma's but the looks of it

But i would put my money on Opistophthalmus sp.

My memory of genera spelling is not that great, then -- I tried googling something along the lines of Opistophthalmus and it came back with

Did you mean Opisthacanthus?

So I thought I was just remembering one genus wrong when I was actually looking in the right direction and Google steered me away.

unfortunately without a cleaner scorpion and some closer or more detailed pictures all guesses at this point are little more than that. i feel comfortable as placing it either as an opistocanthus or opistothalmus, but i cant even say which of the two genera it is from the pics.



John

It's most definitely Opisthacanthus sp.. Give me a more precise locale of where you found the scorp and I'll give you a more accurate species. It's arboreal so give it some climbing surface and humidity of about 85%.