My collection

I had a bit of a clean up in my scorpion room today so i thought i'd use the occasion to get a few pictures as well as documenting my stock up to now.

First up is Androctonus amourexi. I have 1.1 and this is the female



I also have 1.1 Androctonus bicolor. This is the male.



Then theres a 1.2 group of Centruroides margaritatus



Then i have 1.2 Grosphus ankarana. This is the male.



Next is Hottentotta hottentotta



Then theres 0.1.1 Hottentotta tamulus. This is a female.



My last hottentotta is a gravid Hottentotta saulcyi



I also have 1.1 5th instar Parabuthus schlechteri



And 1.2 Parabuthus villosus 5th and 6th instar. Here's one of the females.



Next i have a 2.2 Rhoplaurus garridoi. Here's a male.



and 1.1 Rhopalurus laticauda. The female is of course on the left.



Then 1.1 Rhopalurus pintoi. Here's the female.



Plus 1.1 Rhopalurus princeps. Here again is the female.



Then i have 0.0.5 Leirus quinquestriatus hebreus 2nd instar



and lastly i have a couple of Tityus species. Here's a Tityus stigmurus



and a gravid Tityus zulianus

Very enviable collection Den and some great pictures. My favourites there have to be the G. ankarana and P. schlechteri.

All Buthidae though. Have you got something against the other families lol??

Thanks Callum

Quote :

All Buthidae though. Have you got something against the other families lol??

Not really. I've had quite a few Euscorpiidae and Vaejovidae before i re-started the hobby as well as a few Buthidae although this time around i've decided to concentrate on just Buthidae because they generally have a decent size and give birth to relatively large young which makes feeding them so much easier .. although there are of course exceptions.

Quote :

My favourites there have to be the G. ankarana and P. schlechteri.

Mine to although i'll add R.pintoi and H.jayakari to that list..Those P.schlechteri are absolutely gorgeous and their behaviour is like totally wild. P.schlechteri is the only scorpion i have actually seen "hop". I was moving one of them from loose sand to an enclosure utilizing consolidated sand. As i moved a small plastic container close to it to scoop it up it suddenly started boxing wildly with it's metasoma and actually hopped/jumped over the plastic container. It must have used it's metasoma as a kind of spring board. Never seen any scorpion do that!...plus i've seen both of them actively chase a cricket down with some incredibly sharp and eye blurring moves .. so these guys really live up to their name..Total bad asses

These Buthidae keepers, always impatient and wanting an easy life. Scorpion keeping is all about waiting for a miniscule scorpion take over 3 years to reach maturity, then have a 14 month gestation period haha .

I drool over all of the Parabuthus spp. to be honest but P. schlechteri are one of, if not my favourite. They sound like they're ''fun'' to keep as well lol.

Have you got any pics of the Buthus paris, I love Buthus spp.

Quote :

Scorpion keeping is all about waiting for a miniscule scorpion take over 3 years to reach maturity, then have a 14 month gestation period haha

I've been there before with a small group of Chaerilus rectimanus's as well as liocheles australiensis...and while that is still interesting i'm more interested now in the quicker turnaround

Quote :

Have you got any pics of the Buthus paris, I love Buthus spp.

Damn, you're right .. that one must have slipped from memory as i was uploading them. Here's one of them although it's still 5th instar (heavy pre-moult) and i'm not sure yet of the sex.

Buthus paris

Awesome pics, Den. I like the Tityus species the best.

Great pics mate.

Love the tamulus, definitely one of my favourite spp.

Very nice Den. I have to agree with you and Callum. Your P.schlechteri is awesome, my female just moulted to 3rd instar and that lovely yellowish legs with the darker carapace is coming through nicely.
That P.villosus is also great, do you have some measurements of the villosus?

Quote :

Awesome pics, Den. Smile I like the Tityus species the best.

Thanks mate..Yeh, T.stigmurus is a beautiful little beast and my zulianus is surprisingly large for a Tityus (one of the reasons they appealed to me) she's approx 7-8 cm with metasoma.

Quote :

Great pics mate.

Love the tamulus, definitely one of my favourite spp.

Thanks Dolby .. since i last spoke to you regarding these i've found out that you was right..It is the gangeticus morph. So, well spotted. You said you wasn't an expert on hottentotta but you're certainly more of an expert on hottentotta than i am

Quote :

That P.villosus is also great, do you have some measurements of the villosus?

Well she's still only 5th instar but even still she's a good 7 or 8 cm's including metasoma so i'm expecting her to be quite a large scorpion when she's fully grown. Also, her and the 2 males are often out of their burrows even during the daylight which i think is quite special. The only other scorpions i have that display similar behaviour is my R.pintoi and R.garridoi females (not the males though!). I suspect they bask under the heat light to speed up or accommodate the development of their eggs as they are both gravid.

Den, I forgot to ask, what instar is your T. stigmurus at?
You will probably have more soon, as they are parthenogenic.

Quote :

Den, I forgot to ask, what instar is your T. stigmurus at

I'm not actually sure. I got her as an unknown instar with a body size of approx 1 cm. Since then she's moulted once and is now in pre moult with a body size of approx 1½-2 cm so i'm thinking her next moult will take her to sub adult.

Quote :

You will probably have more soon, as they are parthenogenic

Thats the reason i got her mate. I like the idea of having a small colony of them

Beautiful lineup you have there, my friend.

Thank you Envyizm .. I couldn't help but feel the same after looking through your collection

I noticed to that i had forgot to post up a representative for my 3.2 H.jayakari. They are all instar 4 now with most of them in pre moult fast approaching instar 5.

Here's one of the leaner specimens...

Hottentotta jayakari

Amazing. I love jayakari. One day I will have some...

Quote :

I love jayakari. One day I will have some...

I hear you mate..there's not much about jayakari to dislike...Will you be able to source these in South Africa or are you reliant on import from the states or Europe?

At the moment there is nobody in SA who has Hottentotta spp. I think I might be the only guy keeping A. mauretanicus as well. All my exotics come from Germany.

quite an impressive collection~
great photos :3

Awesome looking scorpions. Those Rhoplaurus and Tityus spp are amazing. I love the look of P. schlechteri with the dark body and white coloured appendages. @ Shadowfoot: Apart from the easily accesible species like Uroplectes and some of the local parabuthus. Unless you got those from Overseas as well?

The scorpion keeping hobby in SA is rather small with the most common species bieng our Uroplectes, Parabuthus spp and Pandinus imperator being the most common, but if you know where to look, you can get some pretty amazing species (By south african standards at least).

@Firefly, all my Parabuthus are from SA, except schlechteri.