- Also known as West African Ground Scorpion, Congo Red Alligator Back Scorpion
- This Old World scorpion is from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cape Verde Islands, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
- This species hides underneath stones and bark, digging shallow cavities without any tunnels.
- This species is very HOT!
- Averages 2"-3" in length
- Inside this huge distribution area different populations with different morphological and color-related varieties appear.
- The Hottentotta hottentotta are SAID to be parthenogenic, but this has not been scientifically proven (in other words, no scientific papers have been published). My feelings WERE that they are either wild caught gravid females with long gestation periods, or they exhibit Amphigonia Retardata (females can store sperm; they can litter several times without any additional matings occurring. Increasingly smaller litters are to be expected, however). Possibly the wild caught females are storing sperm for quite some time?
However, there is a pectine count for this species = ♂ 25 - 29; ♀ 22 - 26. That seems to say that there are both males and females, right? BUT, we have counted pectines of 28 & 29, sold these as males, and then been told that they had babies. So, I guess we have to say that they truly are a parthenogenic species!
- This Old World scorpion is from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cape Verde Islands, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
- This species hides underneath stones and bark, digging shallow cavities without any tunnels.
- This species is very HOT!
- Averages 2"-3" in length
- Inside this huge distribution area different populations with different morphological and color-related varieties appear.
- The Hottentotta hottentotta are SAID to be parthenogenic, but this has not been scientifically proven (in other words, no scientific papers have been published). My feelings WERE that they are either wild caught gravid females with long gestation periods, or they exhibit Amphigonia Retardata (females can store sperm; they can litter several times without any additional matings occurring. Increasingly smaller litters are to be expected, however). Possibly the wild caught females are storing sperm for quite some time?
However, there is a pectine count for this species = ♂ 25 - 29; ♀ 22 - 26. That seems to say that there are both males and females, right? BUT, we have counted pectines of 28 & 29, sold these as males, and then been told that they had babies. So, I guess we have to say that they truly are a parthenogenic species!