Sunday, June 8, 2008

Heterometrus longimanus molting

I was doing the rounds yesterday and when I went to check on my juvenile Heterometrus longimanus community, I managed to catch one little guy in the act of molting (something I've only witnessed once before in a much smaller scorpion).

When I found him at 8:20 PM:

One of his tankmates came out to check on him and see what I was up to (note the threat posture):

A blacklight pic for fun -- he decided to molt right beside another exuvium:

A weird shot of what the pedipalps look like during all this (8:42 PM):10:48 PM and the pedipalps are free:

Finished up just after midnight:

That's his exuvium on the left, along with the one he molted next to:
For another 7 pictures of the sequence, please go here.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

My First "Wild-Caught"

I went camping last weekend with a few friends with the intention of FINALLY capturing some Uroctonus mordax -- the small species of forest scorpion native to Oregon and Washington (and yes, California too).

Success! I found two blacklighting on Saturday, thanks to some teamwork with my fiancee.

The next morning I went back for some rock-flipping and found a third that managed to get away. (Photo credit goes to my fiancee.)

For more pics and the whole story please see my post on ScorpionForum.