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Project Noah Nature School
Centruroides sp
huge scorpion, nearly 10cm (3.5inches) spotted with UV light, second photo under LED light
desert, rocky, dry
I spent 3 days camping in the Tatacoa desert in southern Colombia. Was an amazing place. Two nights I went out scorpion hunting with my UV light and spotted 7 scorpions the first night and 3 the second. I didn´t go out as long on the second night. These were all within a 5 minute walk of my tent. I have many more photos of them but they internet is fairly slow here, so I am only uploading these 2 for now.
Just saw the second ID suggestion. Wrong side of the world to be Hottentota.
Great spot Dan! Can't wait to see all your other spots from your adventure.
Wow! Thanks everyone for all the amazing and supportive comments.I was offline climbing a volcano for a few days and this was a great surprise to come back to. I´m going to look into the suggested ID´s later but I think you´re on the right track skinheaddave.
I've suggested Centruroides sp. as an ID. Both C.margaritatus and C.gracilis range into Columbia but both are polymorphic and are very close in appearance. The entire genus is a bit of a mess and under constant revision. The other option would be Tityus sp., though I would lean towards Centruroides on a G.I.S. basis. If you want to tell for sure then it looks like you likely have the relevant details in your images. Assuming you have a high enough resolution on your camera you should be able to see the cutting surface of the chela. It will have a set of rows of denticles like lines slashed across the surface (http://eycb.pagesperso-orange.fr/scorpio...). Centruroides have substantially fewer than Tityus. I can't recall the exact numbers off-hand but that would be the place to look to nail down genus for sure.
Dan my friend that a super cool spotting,the first photo is very unusual,and it's a great idea to show this amazing Fluorecent Scorpion,in his nigth show:-) congrats again for one more SOTD,good luck for your epic journy .-)
Congratulations Dan! I didn't know scorpions glowed under UV light. Very cool.
Spotted on Dec 29, 2012
Submitted on Jan 13, 2013
