New Scorpions. Likely gravid female!

A simple trip to get cat food somehow turned into a "buy 2, throw in the third one for free" deal on emps.
Dunno how these things happen.
Looks like the move brought out some amorous feelings, because it wasn't long before they were doing the mating wrestle, and within hours of putting them in their temporary critter keeper, I found this...





This is the male, with the broken chelae:



And the two females (I'm 90% sure, anyways):

Congrats!

Btw, i'm not sure if i get the scenario right.

You put in the three Pandinus imperatos into the same tank and within a few hours, you found two separate spermatophore?

GS wrote:

Congrats!

Btw, i'm not sure if i get the scenario right.

You put in the three Pandinus imperatos into the same tank and within a few hours, you found two separate spermatophore?

You got it!
Seems they celebrated their new home with an orgy...

Lolz.. Nice!

About the sex ratio, did you witness the same male mated with two females?
As i do suspect that it is actually two males to a female as the refractory period for males to regenerate their "package" (spermatophore) is unlikely to be within a few hours.

Usually 3-6 days, fastest i've encountered is within 48hrs. It's slightly different among species

GS wrote:

Lolz.. Nice!

About the sex ratio, did you witness the same male mated with two females?
As i do suspect that it is actually two males to a female as the refractory period for males to regenerate their "package" (spermatophore) is unlikely to be within a few hours.

Usually 3-6 days, fastest i've encountered is within 48hrs. It's slightly different among species

+1

I'm biased to believe too it's 2 males that mated with one female, for the reasons GS stated.
If this trio has been kept together at the pet store, this would explain the broken claw as well.

+1 to everything GS and Dolby said.
Congrats on the mating. As previously stated, it's more likely that there are two males and one female. You may want to take a look at this thread: [HOW TO] Sexing Pandinus spp and Heterometrus spp
If you're still unsure which individuals are male and female, post pics and we can sex them for you.

Congrats on the successful mating!

Well, I would hope it was successful after 2 hits in a few hours...poor girl

DolbyR wrote:

If this trio has been kept together at the pet store, this would explain the broken claw as well.

+1

Scorpion19981000 wrote:

If you're still unsure which individuals are male and female, post pics and we can sex them for you.

+1

JamieLawrence wrote:

Well, I would hope it was successful after 2 hits in a few hours...poor girl

Who knows, the female might have "faked orgasm" in one of the "hits"

Back to topic, most of the time, one successful insemination would suffice. But there's no harm keep a pair together for at least eight months or once you are certain that the female is about to "pop" soon

Let's just hope the boys were grabbing the right claws...

Scorpion19981000 wrote:

+1 to everything GS and Dolby said.
Congrats on the mating. As previously stated, it's more likely that there are two males and one female. You may want to take a look at this thread: [HOW TO] Sexing Pandinus spp and Heterometrus spp
If you're still unsure which individuals are male and female, post pics and we can sex them for you.

That helped.
So the scarred one is definitely a male, the big one is the female, and the only one I was iffy on before was the small one.
But after close comparison with the other two, it's pretty clearly a male as well.

So here's a question.
According to GS just above, one insemination will suffice. But can scorpions get impregnated by more than one male?
I know dogs and presumably other animals can.
And is my female the scorpion equivalent of the "town pump"??

Oh, and yes, they were all together in the pet store, too. They seemed pretty cozy, and the guy really didn't want to split the group up, since they seemed to get along so well. Hence the negotiating.
Little did I know... lol.

Here's the scarred one:



Here's the small one:



And the large one (makes sense she'd be the female):


Sorry about that quality - cellphones don't focus very well throuh semitranslucent tupperware... The female seems especially ill- tempered, with the small one being a bit skittish, but docile enough.
The scarred one is moody - sometimes fairly calm, sometimes grumpy.

Yup.

Pic1 = Male
Pic2 = Male
Pic3 = Female

Heckboy wrote:

So here's a question.
According to GS just above, one insemination will suffice. But can scorpions get impregnated by more than one male?
I know dogs and presumably other animals can.
And is my female the scorpion equivalent of the "town pump"??

The thing is.. like in your scenario when a female had mated with two males, we wouldn't know for sure which is the one she has actually accepted. Probably, she took in both but which till the point she knows that she is successfully inseminated, it probably take some time.

On many occasion, i have multiple males to mate with a single female in a breeding project. On each occasion, the female was given a few days of rest while the males took turns at her. The female seems to be receptive to the males advancement until she is sure of her own pregnancy and start to show rejection to the male's sexual advancement.

The earliest i have observed on the female rejection towards the male is right at the 2nd mating attempt.
Seven days from the first. However, do note that it might not be exactly the same as yours as it varies across specimens

Thanks for the enlightenment. I'm both thrilled and slightly frightened by the idea of scorplings (much like I felt with my first child, lol).

Here's the big happy family:


The big female on the left and the small male:

The female:

The small male:

The other male:

The small male is the only one placid enough so far to handle:

out of curiousity
have you noticed any change in their interaction/aggression?

my female turned out to be gravid and with the death of my male and her aggression i realized i should have separated them (however they were only together 2 weeks). But these scorpions being raised together seems like a non issue.

I have scorplings now. congrats they're really awesome

Do you mean aggression arising from pregnancy?

shark_xo wrote:

out of curiousity
have you noticed any change in their interaction/aggression?

my female turned out to be gravid and with the death of my male and her aggression i realized i should have separated them (however they were only together 2 weeks). But these scorpions being raised together seems like a non issue.

I have scorplings now. congrats they're really awesome

Can't say anything about any changes in behavior - they mated the night I brought them home but personality quirks aside, they seem to get along with each other just fine. Regardless, the males are getting their own more permanent enclosure in a few days, and for now the female can stay where she is.
I had thought a flat rock was necessary, and there wouldn't be any mating without one available. Nature finds a way, I guess.
I know it'll be a while before knowing for certain if she's gravid, but I'm already madly researching raising P. Imperator scorplings.

Heckboy wrote:

I know it'll be a while before knowing for certain if she's gravid, but I'm already madly researching raising P. Imperator scorplings.

Well done on that