Heterometrus longimanus

In late August of 2010, I found this large female while black-light hunting in a wooded park behind a residential area close to within the central proximity of Kuching city.

She was perched face down on the trunk of this tree roughly 2ft above ground level. Of the few instances that I've found H. longimanus in the wild, each time specimens were encountered oriented vertically on tree buttresses low to the ground, which supports ideas of this species being somewhat semi-arboreal in nature.

Evidence of scorpling shed caught on epiphyte tendrils within her proximity indicates that she recently weaned off a brood. She was the first adult female H. longimanus that I caught since I came back to Kuching, and since then I've caught many others in disparate locations around the city.

Between then and now, all females that I collected were kept in individual cubicles as depicted below.



In the manner that she was found, I presumed that she would be ready to mate again, so I introduced one of the large males into her enclosure to see if she was responsive. She didn't seem to take interest and no mating was observed. The male was then removed the morning after and no spermatophore was found in the enclosure.

On 14042011, I noticed that she had given birth to a captive brood

As, this brood was born not long after her capture, it is highly unlikely that it was a result of the brief introduction; especially when considering that gestation for this genus is known to be much longer. It is possible that this is a systemic brood.


3 days later the young have molted to 2i


Will keep you posted on their progress. Cheers and best regards.

Thanx for sharing Alex, always love reading your stuff missed you not being around much lately, been reading your lychas mucronatus write up over and over are there any other similar species which could be semi arboreal?

Brood update with pics of brood feeding behavior






cheers and best regards

Wow amazing!! Thank you for sharing! Can't wait to witness this Behaviour for myself

Heterometrus longimanus brood Update 07072011
Two of the four broods that were born have been separated from their mothers and are currently being reared in these tubs.


Another brood has had the mother removed to be inducted to a communal enclosure.

The mother was seen more frequently outside the burrow behaving suggestively that she intended to leave the nest.

In the absence of the mother, the brood remained as a cooperative, banding together to overpower large prey items and even sharing food between each other. Other than removal of the female, this brood has been left undisturbed.

One more brood is still with their mother.

This particular brood has had the mother temporarily removed for a scorpling head count. Upon re-introduction no alienated aggression was observed. The colony behaved as if nothing has changed.

Cheers and best regards

Love the group feeding pic! *thumbs up

nice pics. and thanks for sharing sir. your scorpions are great...

Wow this is very cool stuff ..... So it seems H. longimanus is okay with a terrestrial container and lifestyle but since you had mention these are often found 2 ft above the ground on tree trunks... would it be safe to say maybe they would be happier/ more comfortable in a tall tank/container for arboreals ? are these communal by chance ?

Bamboo wrote:

Wow this is very cool stuff ..... So it seems H. longimanus is okay with a terrestrial container and lifestyle but since you had mention these are often found 2 ft above the ground on tree trunks... would it be safe to say maybe they would be happier/ more comfortable in a tall tank/container for arboreals ? are these communal by chance ?

In cases where I've found them in hollows high above the ground, these areas are either near streams or flood planes where the water level may be a factor... but most of the dens I've found are terrestrial. I also recently confirmed this after a week up in Mulu National Park with a UV maglight. Many of them favor to construct their dens in the root systems of trees. Others may inhabit crevices that seem to orient them sideways or upwards against the tree, but this seems to be a matter of adaptive necessity. Juveniles and sub-adults build burrows in the dense leaf-litter mulch substrate.

I think its safe to say that H. longimanus is centrally terrestrial with obligatory inclinations to exploit environmental conditions that mimic behavioral adaptations that suggest otherwise.

Wow... this is very informative indeed sir! Thank you for taking the time to share!!