H.jayakari anatomy

Hey guys Inspired by Liocheles's excellent macro picture of a mite i've made a short film (3.08 minutes) of a 3rd instar H.jayakari exuvia filmed at 60 magnification.

You can find it here.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAUwljAzeEI

Nice video.

That's pretty good stuff Den!

Thanks for sharing.

Very nice man.

Cheers guys.......What surprised me though was the rows of small teeth embedded in the Chela. I didn't expect to see that.
I fished out a few other same size exuvia's and had a look at them and noticed that the 3 species i looked at all had different teeth within their Chelae.

Here they are shown at 200 magnification....I apologise for the bad quality but it seems almost impossible to produce a really sharp picture on my microscope at 200 mag because of the incredibly small depth of field the focus has.

Anyway here they are.

This first one is the same as shown in my video only this is at 200 mag as opposed to 60 mag that the film was done in.
Notice how there are larger teeth spaced out at regular intervals plus there is trichobothria rather haphazardly interlaced throughout

Hottentotta jayakari


The next one is the Chela of a Tityus serralutus. Notice how the small teeth are all uniformly spaced plus the lack of trichobothria.

Tityus serralutus


Lastly here's the Chela of a female Rhoplaurus garridoi. These to are uniformly spaced out plus they lack trichobothria but here you can make out a few larger teeth outside of the central line of the small rowed teeth.

Rhoplaurus garridoi


Based on these pictures it sure looks as if H.jayakari has the surest gripping Chelae of the 3 species...

What microscope are you using?
Is it one of those USB ones? Or something more "professional"?

Yes...it's one of those USB ones but it's actually quite good..I brought it originally for sexing 2nd instar scorps that have known pectine teeth counts but since then i've found loads of other uses for it.

The supplied software is good as well..I can capture still or video direct from the microscope..The only limitations is a low field of focus at it's maximum mag of 200.

But then again...for a mere 30 Euro you can't really complain...

I've thinking about those for few months, exactly for sexing purposes but was too sceptic to purchase one.

Now I definitely need to get one! 30eur is a pretty good price too for the results you're getting. I was looking at "real" scopes, and they start from about 250e.

Yeh go for it Dolby..you won't be disappointed

There's a lot of different models on the market and i don't know if they are all as good...I'd keep away from those "handheld" ones though...You'd never be able to hold it still enough to get a decent picture.

Mine is called "Traveller" and it looks like a standard microscope with 10, 60 and 200 mag and 60 mag is more than plenty for sexing the smallest of exuvia.........All in all it's a good bit of kit.

Den wrote:

Mine is called "Traveller" and it looks like a standard microscope with 10, 60 and 200 mag and 60 mag is more than plenty for sexing the smallest of exuvia.........All in all it's a good bit of kit.

http://www.traveler-service.de/cms/index.php?id=optical-equipment-detail-uk&no_cache=1&tx_ewcamerasheet_pi1[view]=detail&tx_ewcamerasheet_pi1[id]=286

This?

That's the one...

Are the trichobothria replaced with each molt?

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Are the trichobothria replaced with each molt?

I'm not sure if they reappear in exactly the same spot or if it's a bit more arbitrary but yes....trichobothria are replaced with each moult.

Here's a picture of a freshly moulted H.jayakari strutting her fresh trichobothria..

I'm inclined to believe they would regrow in the same spots. I don't think they would "move" between molts.

But that's just what I think

nice thread Den! it's awesome to watch the vid and those pics!

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I'm inclined to believe they would regrow in the same spots.

I think you're probably right Dolby .. I had a female H.tamulus moult today so i took a couple of pics for comparison. I can't make out a trichobothria for trichobothria comparison but there's certainly quite a few of them that are in the same spot .. Hairy bugger aint she..

nice!

Is that a H. t. gangeticus?

Beautiful lady you've got there

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Is that a H. t. gangeticus?

I don't actually know Dolby. I brought a couple of these guys advertised as H.tamulus and assumed thats what they are. I've just had a look around online to see if i can find a comparison between tamulus and tamulus gangeticus but can't seem to find anything.

What is it that makes you wonder if they are H.t.gangeticus?

One thing i've noticed about them is their incredible confidence. Whereas other scorpions will either run, curl, or stiffen up if i lift their hide, these guys immediately adopt an attack/defensive pose and if i try to move them so that i can put the hide back they dig their legs into the sand and stand their ground, waving their metasoma as if to say "I dare you to come any closer!"
I can certainly understand why so many locals get stung by these guys..They're not scared of anything.

From my experience, tamulus sindicus are more often available in germany, while gangeticus seem to appear less often. Gangeticus are usually more redish and sindicus are more yellow. I recently posted a pic of my 5i male H.t. sindicus in the Who molted today thread.

Very cool video, Den. I really enjoyed your choice of music. Erik Satie; an excellent composer. Kudos again, my friend.

I've had a word with the dealer and he assures me they are H.tamulus. I have a 400 watt high pressure sodium lamp hanging in my scorp room which has a yellow/orange tinge to the light and although i can't see much of a difference with the naked eye, pictures taken under it do tend to be biased slightly towards the red spectrum.

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Erik Satie; an excellent composer

He certainly was .. it doesn't surprise me that you recognised the composer Envyizm

Den wrote:

he assures me they are H.tamulus.

No doubts about that. Just got curious as I've always seen them labeled with the morph as well. Maybe there's a third "typical" one as well. I'm not a Hottentotta specialist