My first H. paucidens (female), arrived in early April this year. Her fondness of parking under the warm light indicated that she might indeed be already gravid.
Determining gravidity is particularly difficult for this species due to its dark pleural membrane. Therefore, I was more inclined to put my hopes on the back burner and not worry about it
On 21st October 2009, Eric got me another female and a male just when I ran short of suitable enclosures.
Thus, despite the renown non-communality of this species, I decided to experiment with setup that will permanently house a breeding pair without untoward circumstances.
A 44x23x23cm was what I had around at the moment so I bought some slate rock from the local nursery and setup three individual hides.
The new female I had was significantly larger than the male and my 1st female. She was also more hostile towards the male and was therefore kept isolated. The male however was roughly the same size as my first girl so in the event that they crossed paths they were more inclined to avoid each other with reasonable tolerance.
After a week of continued observation, I left them to their own devices. I did not see any mating but occasionally they I saw them squeezing into the larger middle hide together; not very typical of their solitary nature.
4/12/2009 - When I was trying to show a friend what Flatrock Scorpions looked like, I lifted a rock and was in disbelief of what I saw. I wasn't sure whether I caught her in the middle of parturition or she already had them earlier so I gently replaced the rock and set about making an enclosure to extract the male. This time of year the monsoon should be in full swing. Living on the 13th floor, gusts of cool wind bellowing in from the balcony was a common everyday occurrence. I suspected this might have triggered the birth of her litter. I kept interruption to a minimal, but I was quite eager to make a baby count. This was considerably difficult due to the narrow gap which I tried in vain to squeeze my eyeball through
10/12/2009 - I mange to take some sneak peaks of the babies
After much investigation, it has been determined that the brood is very small
. Only 4 babies are accounted for.
This species is known to produce up to 30 at the time but they are also known to terminate and reduce their litter size according to environmental conditions.
So for the meantime I will try my best to keep these 4 alive as best I can. When they leave mom, I will try to mate the remaining pair to raise a sufficient number for future breeding... Considering this is my 1st success with this species and any other foreign species, it was modest achievement; bringing into account that it is one of the toughest species to breed and raise in captivity. Will keep you posted with further updates
Cheers.
