Scorpion scratching itself??

Hi all,

I traded one of my small male Emperors for a huge female today (the owner is an Entomology prof of mine) and I noticed that she appears to be "scratching" itself a lot, e.g. scraping its chela in between its first and second pair of legs.

I assume that it is cleaning itself? I've read many times that scorpions are meticulously clean fussy creatures.

The funny thing is that while it's scratching, its chelicerae keeps moving in a motion similar to when it's masticating its prey.

I'm wondering if anyone out there has noticed this behavior as well. I'm not worried, but the fact is that my school (Cal Poly Pomona) had an Insect Day yesterday and today and this female Emp was on display the whole two days. She was handled by hundreds of people (who were first-time handlers and many of whom freaked out and nearly dropped her) so I'm wondering if the incessant scratching is due to stress/mites. (Not that I can see any on her)

Any input would be appreciated. She's so docile and such a sweetheart!!

It kills me to hear people ask "Oh, is this scorpion POISONOUS"?. I know the average person out there probably does not know the difference between venomous and poisonous but it's still a pet peeve of mine. Oh well, just a side note.

Sounds normal. If you're worried about stress from the bug day (I've had a huge het at a similar event, and she's fine years later), just let her sit in her cave for a few weeks without disturbance.

And whenever people ask me that, I respond with, "Oh, no, you can eat them!"

Mr. Mordax wrote:

And whenever people ask me that, I respond with, "Oh, no, you can eat them!"

Haha, that's brilliant! I always hate it as well when people ask that question but what can you do eh?

To be honest, I never stopped to think about the difference until a few years ago when some friends brought up their frustration watching Snakes on a Plane.

This behavior is completely normal and is called "stridulation"!

As a special form of stridulation sound production in spiders and insects is known, which is produced by rubbing two body parts moving against each other.

Many scorpion species are capable of sound production by stridulation. These tough, structural body parts are rubbed together rich, incurring high-frequency hiss. Stridulate why the scorpions, is unclear. Either serve the noise to find the partner for mating, or it could also keep this a Drohverhalten against enemies.

Depending on the species stridulate scorpions have a variety. Many species Pandinus and Heterometrus stridulate through pre-swing back, and the pedipalps.
Some species for example Stridulate Opisthophtalmus by flavescens rub against each other their chelicerae. Other species such as Rhopalurus spec. Stridulate with their crests.
Stridulate Parabuthus species, can be deleted by its barbed tip of the Feilenzähnchen on their backs, and even poison sprayed (that caution should be!).

It is worth noting that for scorpions in captivity, the willingness to stridulation generally decreases with time.



SRY FOR THIS BAD ENGLISH >>>> GOOGLE TRANSLATOR

Stridulation is the hissing we were talking about in another thread. The behavior observed by Roy is just a scorpion cleaning itself.

Mr. Mordax wrote:

Sounds normal. If you're worried about stress from the bug day (I've had a huge het at a similar event, and she's fine years later), just let her sit in her cave for a few weeks without disturbance.

And whenever people ask me that, I respond with, "Oh, no, you can eat them!"

this. i would never have that many people hold my even nicest scorpion, but she definitely needs a vacation

and its nice to see others educating folks about arachnids.

It's funny you brought up Snakes On A Plane Mike. My major advisor works primarily with lizards and snakes (so do most of my other labmates, I work with frogs and toads) and we have "Bad animal movie nights". SOTP takes the top spot out of all the stupid animal movies we have watched together.

Has anyone else ever noticed that in most , if not all snake movies SOME guy always inevitably gets his privates bitten?

Maybe I should suggest watching an arachnid themed horror movie instead of our regular reptilian one next time LOL (Eight-legged Freaks, anyone?)

Roy wrote:

Maybe I should suggest watching an arachnid themed horror movie instead of our regular reptilian one next time LOL (Eight-legged Freaks, anyone?)

arachnophobia scares the you know what out of me

But you're ok handling your scorps and spiders?

You've gotta watch Ice Spiders as long as you're on the subject of bad movies. The acting is some of the worst I've seen, what passes for "science" is atrocious*, and the spiders make the same sounds as my cat when he was a kitten.

*When you clone with mitochondrial DNA, all you get is mitochondria, you idiots!!!!

snakes on a train is much worse than plane, komodo vs cobra is terrible and has bad science, they claim komodos and cobras are amphibians lol

Snakes on a Train? Sounds like a blatant rip-off the already bad Snakes on a Plane.....

Did anyone say, "Enough is enough, I've had it with this mother-------- snakes on this mother---------- train?"

LOL

Roy wrote:

But you're ok handling your scorps and spiders?

i dont handle spiders, at all, Ever...
the only good spider is a dead spider...
and the only good dead spider is a flat spider

snakes on a train came out first lol
2 days before snakes on a plane lmao
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_on_a_Train

the lycan mikey wrote:

Roy wrote:

But you're ok handling your scorps and spiders?

i dont handle spiders, at all, Ever...
the only good spider is a dead spider...
and the only good dead spider is a flat spider

golly, i know what i hope YOU come back as in your next life

i handle some of my inverts, but i know i shouldn't...they get nothing out of it, and i just get itchy hands, in the cases of the spiders lol