H. Spin Life Cycle??

I was hoping someone might be able to help me with a question regarding H. Spin life cycle.

Long story short, I set up a viv for 2 adult female H. Spins did all my homework thought I had crossed all t's and dotted all i's but then at the last minute was forced to make a decision in getting adult males or getting 4 babies about 1".

I was about average length of times between molting and average lengths of time until a baby at 2i or 3i takes to reach full maturity. Everything I read talks about 6 or 7 molts, which is fine, but surely there has to be an average time for one to mature.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

They get born, the live for about 5 years, then they die...lol....

I have a chart with the averages for emps but unfortunately not for this sp.

Your best bet would be to PM LXDNG79

binksyboy3 wrote:

I have a chart with the averages for emps but unfortunately not for this sp.

I'll send a message on but would you mind posting up the chart you have, or maybe reiterating it to avoid any copy write issues? Even if it's in a new post so others can see it, I think it would be helpful Better yet, if you found it online can post up a link? Thanks for your help.

Ok.. I'll try my best using my old photo archives to put this piece together... thanks for the request me for this...

Heterometrus spinifer takes 2 years to reach maturity. They molt up to 7 times... bringing to 8th instar when they mature.

At 1st instar, the white young (as in most scorpions) are glutinously soft, fragile, and lacking any exoskeletal definition.


At 2nd instar (the 1st molt) the young attain the anatomical resemblance of their parents but still retain the ghostly white coloration.


3rd instar: the young darken in color to a purplish/brownish hue; still far from the dark, iridescent aqua-green of most adults.

At this stage however they still benefit from the being under the care of their mother as seen in this pic of one of my females actively feeding her young.

The mother will dispatch large prey items for them and allow them to mob feed around the carcass.


4th-5th instar; these juveniles start to show their dark colors... Even now, its is sensible to keep them communally since they do cooperate sometimes to bring down larger prey.

Separation from the mother is not absolutely necessary as in the wild, I've seen colonies of 4th to 5th instars still living with their ginormous mom; which suggest maternal care for both species may be longer than previously believed.

Up to this point Heterometrus spinifer can be sometimes mistaken for H. longimanus. This is due to the shape of the chela being relatively slender in comparison to adults. Granulations on prosoma (carapace) may sometimes be misconstruing to ascertain the accurate species ID.


6th-7th instar is the stage most of them will naturally disperse away from mom and form packs consisting of 5 to 8 individuals. Sometimes in the wild, the mother will leave the burrow to find a new place while the sub-adults form a sub-social colony in the same undergrowth they were born.

on the 7th molt... they reach the mature 8th instar phase....

this is evidently indicated by the fully-bloomed chela of this freshly-molted individual, which is more bulbous than in juveniles.


The final hardening of the exoskeleton in maturity reveals the characteristic blackish-seagreen sheen and a distinctively orange/red colored telson which was a creamy white in juveniles and sub-adults.
.

I hope this helps... I'm compiling all this for part of a paper I'm working on the natural history of H. spinifer and longimanus... so this is a rough draft of the life cycle bit.

Cheers

LXDNG79 wrote:

I hope this helps... I'm compiling all this for part of a paper I'm working on the natural history of H. spinifer and longimanus... so this is a rough draft of the life cycle bit.

Wow, that was more than helpful. Thanks very much for putting that together! Seriously it answered a lot more questions than just the life cycle one. Thank you very much. This even answered questions I didn't know I had regarding some of my scorps behaviors and stuff.

Also when you write out this paper if it is more than just what you put down in this post, will there be a way to read it? I'd be very interested in reading the final draft, or if you want someone to help proof read it, I'd be happy to.

Thanks again!

I think that's the best you're going to get about H. spinifer life cycles. In my opinion, LXDNG79 is the person to go to about asian forest scorpions on the net--great post!

H. laoticus wrote:

I think that's the best you're going to get about H. spinifer life cycles. In my opinion, LXDNG79 is the person to go to about asian forest scorpions on the net--great post!

Agreed 110%! I don't think this could really have been done any better! LXDNG79, you definitely have my respect and of course Gratitude! H. Laoticus, thanks for suggesting a PM to request this, good call!

LXDNG79, while I'm thinking of it, with all the research I have been doing in the past month or two, in my opinion, I believe that H. Spinnifer and Longimanus just may be the 2nd most popular beginner scorpion and most commonly owned next to Emps. If you compile enough research and put it together like this, you could very well make a book about the two species. Would be pretty cool and I'd definitely buy a copy. Of course if you hadn't thought about it and do it after my suggestion I want a signed copy Thanks again guys, I'm stoked with the wealth of new knowledge I have received today!

Thanks for the encouragement guys... much appreciated. I must credit Jeroen Koojiman for his posts in Venomlist. He did a lot of ground on scorpionids; both Pandinus and Heterometrus species, which refer to gratefully and also Fransitek Korvarik for his taxanomical revision of the genus...

When I finish my paper... I definitely make it available for everyone and anyone; whose constructive criticism I openly welcome with much gratitude.

I've done H. spinifer and H. petersii... Now back in Borneo I'm doing so proper survey on H. longimanus... here...

My main focus is size differentiation which questions the speciation of some unsynonymized.

Anyway thanks for the comments.... Always happy to serve as usual