| McGRINGO's SCORPIONS |
| The first thing everyone asks me about my interest in scorpions is, WHY? To this I have no real answer. As a child, I was deeply and inexplicably fascinated by scorpions. To my family's dismay I would spend hours scratching around in the veld armed with a trowel, long surgical tweezers and assorted jars, returning home to enhouse my catches in boxes and tanks in my bedroom. Holiday trips were commuted to collecting expeditions - in Cape Town, the beautiful beach of Llandudno and the majesty of Table Mountain provided me with beautiful specimens of Opisthophthalmus capensis and Uroplectes insignis respectively - the 14-hour car trip back to Johannesburg was a nightmare for my mother, who was convinced they would escape inside the car! At Leisure Bay on the (then-Natal) South Coast I was thrilled to capture a number of delicate Uroplectes exquisitely banded in vivid orange and black. Such was my interest that, when I read in SA Panorama that Bruno H. Lamoral from the University of Pietermaritzburg was writing a Ph.D on Scorpions of Namibia, I tracked him down and purchased a copy of his thesis, which I still have. Its scientific approach, including a novel way of differentiating species according to the shape of the male hemispermatophores, was largely lost on me, but I marveled at the multiplicity of species shown in the black & white plates and envied his freedom to pursue his calling unhindered. As I developed teenage interests, then left school and discovered the carefree student life at UCT, my scorpion collecting fell by the wayside. Later, juggling a career in advertising and a passion for playing music left me little free time. When I did attempt to pick up where I left off, my plans were vetoed by an arachnophobic wife. Thus it was only in my 38th year (2003) that I returned to my singular hobby. To my great delight, I have since discovered that I am not alone - there appears to be a plethora of scorpion enthusiasts worldwide. They are more than willing to share their knowledge, experience, pictures and passion - giving me pause to reflect that Ivan Illich was indeed a genius. (When he wrote Deschooling Society, the notion of a personal computer didn't exist - let alone the Internet!) As a "reborn" collector, I am indebted to Jan Ove Rein at the Hospital in Trondheim, Norway for his support and for putting me in touch with local expert Jonathan Leeming (whose handbook, Scorpions of Southern Africa is a must-have). I hope that you will take the time to visit their excellent websites (if you haven't already) at the links I have included. Dr. Lorenzo Prendini at the American Museum of Natural History continues to be very encouraging and helpful, especially with identification, while Ian Engelbrecht, my local "scorpion guru" has been an invaluable pilar of support whether sharing his extensive knowledge, mounting expeditions or downing beers at Zen Arcade gigs! As I proceed with my hobby it's my intention to document as many scorpions as I can - firstly, in the hope that my anecdotes and pictures will be of interest to "scorpion fanciers" and second in the hope that the information may be of assistance in the general study and documentation of SA scorpions, which I am told is relatively incomplete. Perhaps the latter is merely to validate my activities - to provide an acceptable answer to the ever-present WHY - but actually, if there's an anwer to this perennial question, it's more zen-like. Like the scorpion in the fable that stings the frog while crossing the river on the amphibean's back, thereby sentencing them both to death, I just can't help myself... I collect scorpions because it's in my nature. |
| WHY SCORPIONS? |
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