Wood Scorpion

Description:

About 30mm long (incl tail) this scorpion was mottled with pale and dark brown colouring. The lower side shows a pair cream-coloured comb-like structures extending laterally from a basal plate in the midline (pic#5). These structures are "pectines", the primary chemosensory organs in scorpions. These pectines brush the ground as the scorpion moves. ".......pre-courtship behaviors were only evoked when male scorpions contacted substrates that had been exposed to a female scorpion. The results from this experiment suggest that scorpions may use chemical cues to find potential mates and to initiate courtship". Melville, John M. (2000)

Habitat:

Trees under bark and in burrows under leaf-litter. This is a native to south-eastern Australia.

Notes:

Unfortunately this scorpion had drowned in rain water - probably washed on to the guttering from the tree. The abdomen was slightly distended. The wood scorpion is also known as the Southern Scorpion.