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Project Noah Nature School
Centruroides vittatus
The body is mostly tan with black stripes on the back. This female was carrying a little more than a dozen babies on her back, it was very exciting to find her :)
I caught her in a pit fall trap I am using for my Masters research. The area is a lowland oak forest, I get many of these scorpions in my traps. The last picture shows her when I found her in my trap with another scorpion. They were both scooped out of my trap, took some photos of momma and the baby, then she scurried off to hide under some oak litter.
Spotted on Jul 2, 2013
Submitted on Jul 12, 2013
5 Comments
Cool spotting and photos, Ashley. I wonder why the bigger scorpion didn't attack the smaller one.
Lovely spotting a mother scorpion is a awesome cache,very cool,congrats and thanks for sharing Ashley
Wow! Awesome find Ashley!
I don't have much experience with scorpions, this is the only kind I have ever come across. But I just looked at the Genus Centruroides, and looks like there are about 70 species! And thank you! My Masters is going well so far, I'm studying the effects of fire on the small vertebrate community with an emphasis on reptiles and amphibians, but of course I get way more invertebrates in my traps than herps. I would never kill any of them, although some of the giant spiders kind of freak me out ;) Love the scorpions though!
Cool find! Your bark scorpions look much darker than our Centruroides sculpturatus here in AZ. Actually, I wasn't aware that there were more Centruroides out there. Good luck on your masters and thanks for not squashing this mamma :)