Just another reason Emps are awesome ^^

A week ago I bought a pre-molt, subadult female emp. Last night I decided it was time to introduce her to my male. I placed the two in a 25-gallon tank to make observation easier, and put in two hides. The female walked over to the male and poked him a few times with her palps. The male started stroking her sides with his telson (seemingly going out of his way *not* to sting her) and poking her with his palps. This went on for nearly half an hour, and at random intervals the male would start shaking for a few seconds, then continue "flirting" as if nohing happened. They have since been sharing a hide, and pretty much stick together outside the hide.

Some people think I'm crazy for saying this, but it's amazing how "cute" scorpions can be at times. It's a shame my camera was on the charger at the time

Just a little side question, is it possible for a subadult female to become gravid? (Not that I have to wait long anyway, that molt's coming really soon.)

Nah, it must be adult before it can become gravid.

Does the shaking mean anything particular ? I seen this in my scorp with no female. Probably not the same shake, but like you had a chill run up your spine type shake.

That's the same shake my male does. Never seen a female do it before.

My smaller scorps do it now and again. Don't quote me on this but i think it's something to do with defensive behaviour because they only ever do it when there is a sudden movement in front of the tank.

binksyboy3 wrote:

My smaller scorps do it now and again. Don't quote me on this but i think it's something to do with defensive behaviour because they only ever do it when there is a sudden movement in front of the tank.

So far I've only seen my male emp do this when interacting with a female. He does this with every female he interacts with. My guess is that he's communicating something to her- maybe defensiveness like you said, or maybe something totally different. Never seen any of my other scorps shake like that. Never seen them do the rest of the "flirting" behavior either.

Maybe Steppenwolf's just a ladies' man. XD

It's called "juddering" and it's usually part of courtship.

Courtship juddering in Uroctonus mordax:


More complicated juddering -- "don't eat me" on the part of the male, "get the hell out" on the part of the female:

oh, my scorps juddering is different to that. They do it exactly on the spot and just sort of shake for a second then stop and repeat a couple of times.

Aye yeh, my male SMP does juddering every single night without fail I can hear it when I am lying in bed. Seen him do it a few times too.

He just sits there, and bangs his ventral side up down on the floor a few times, for a couple of seconds. It's quite cute.

The female SMP is underneath his tub, so I assume he can sense her. She never ever judders. Though they recently mated, he still judders nightly!

Mine was slightly different from those two, but it looked closer to the courtship juddering. Fortunately for him the new female is more gentle than the other two. XD

EDIT: Little update on the pair. I went to pick the pair up for a routine mite check, and the male instantly went into attack mode. He even tried to sting me in the process. My guess is he's trying to protect the female while she's so fragile. (Still premolt.)

Here's a pic of the pair. The female (Tank) is sleeping on top of Steppenwolf. ^^

Nice picture.
Make sure you get some pics once molted (or during the process if you're lucky)

Will do.

Poor Steppenwolf, had that fatty sleeping on top of him.... XD Tank does this frequently now. And Steppenwolf just lets her, almost like a mom and her baby. Tank's a one-scorp brood in herself!

Do you have any hides in there?

There are two cave hides. Though they've been sharing one since I introduced them.

Ok, cool, just wanted to check.

Mr. Mordax wrote:

Ok, cool, just wanted to check.

No prob.

Been watching how thy interact over the past few nights, and I find the male juddering every night when he's near the female. They don't fight over food or anything. The male, however, won't hesitate to attack me if I get too close to the female. He'll even try to sting me (and miss, lol). My little ladies' man


Update: Tank molted tonight! Here are the pics!

Here she is mostly molted, just needs to get her tail out. I would have loved to catch it earlier on, but I was at work.



Fully molted:



The shed skin is fully intact too. Just opened up at the head where she crawled out of herself. x]

Damn that was a good molt!

I'm surprised that molt is fully intact! She did great! ^^

Here is Tank sleeping on Steppenwolf, once again.



Looks like he's her favorite bed now.

That is the coolest thinkg I have seen. All the infor and pics like that on here are making my desicion to get a P. Imp more and more inevitable.

^ You should definately get an emperor(s)
Especially if it's your first scorp.

Thanks for the encouragement. It would be our first scorp.

Before long you'll notice it's hard to stick to one. I love watching how they interact.

Update: Apparently emps can mate just 3 days after molting! Pics:

The dance:




The spermatophore:

aww! my male and female are like that. except shes too young to mate. she will shiver alot, only around him and after close contact. he doesnt shiver, but he loves to sleep with her and her with him. its cute