Found: In cracks in rocks and on the ground near rocky outcrops
Date: 21-22 December 2003
Length: Male: 20cm
Female:
Description: Besides their enormous size, these scorpions are attractively coloured with brown bodies and tails, yellow legs and yellow and brown chelae. This is the most common variation, although I have seen smaller individuals with much darker, virtually black bodies from the South-eastern part of their distribution area and I have heard of all-black and all-brown variations.
Comments: What a Christmas present! H. troglodytes is famous as the world's longest scorpion, with adult males (left & below) attaining a whopping 22cm. I collected 2 males and 2 females using a UV light. I also found a subadult wandering about the veld - quite unusual for Hadogenes, which is generally regarded as rock-bound. Not very safe at all - I found a big Parabuthus transvaalicus on the prowl no more than 5m away!
NB: Although there were loads of these - and other scorpions - to be seen I was careful to limit my hunting to these 5. H. troglodytes is under threat due to its "trophy" status and demand by the overseas pet trade (after all who wouldn't want a giant, docile scorpion with weak venom and a long life span?). Small litter sizes, slow gestation and slow sexual maturation mean healthy populations must be harvested with extreme restraint to avoid wiping out these truly incredible creatures. I was thrilled when one of the females (pictured left) gave birth to 17 young on 22 January 2004. The small pics show the second instar babies, i.e. after their first moult, which happened about 5 days later. Immediately after ecdyisis they were very pale (bottom left), becoming darker over the next 5 days as their new skins "cured." (bottom right) |
