Heterometrus
Encyclopedia
Heterometrus, which members are also known by the collective vernacular name giant forest scorpions, is a genus
of scorpion belonging to the family Scorpionidae. It is distributed widely across tropical and subtropical southeastern Asia, including Cambodia
, Laos
, Thailand
, Vietnam
, as well as India
, Sri Lanka
, Nepal
and China
(Tibet
). It is outstanding for containing some of the largest living species
of scorpions.
of the genus Buthus. It was elevated to genus rank by F. Karsch in 1879.
H.W.C. Couzijn (1978, 1981) subdivided the genus into several subgenera
, but F. Kovařík (2004) synonym
ized these subgenera with the nominal genus.
, walking legs and/or pedipalp
pincers in some species.
The scorpions are heavily build with especially powerful and globose pedipalp
pincers, broad mesosoma
l tergites and a proportionally slender and thin metasoma
. The telson is proportionally small and the stinger often shorter than the vesicle. The cephalothorax
and mesosoma are largely devoid of carinae and granulation and the median eyes are situated in a small, lenticular depression on the cephalothorax.
As in other genera of the Scorpionidae, the symptoms from Heterometrus envenomations are rather mild and no human fatalities are known. The sting causes local pain, inflammation
, oedema, swelling and redness of the skin, lasting for hours to a few days. A study has shown that plant extracts known in the traditional Thai medicine as natural scorpion venom antidotes are effective as symptomatic treatment of H. laoticus stings. The protein
heteroscorpine-1 was found the major component of the venom in H. laoticus.
. As most scorpions they are predominantly nocturnal and hide in burrows, below logs and in leaf litter.
A group of up to three adult individuals need a vivarium
c. 60 x 30 x 30 cm (for 1-3 specimens) in size with a thick layer of peat
or similar plant litter substrate at the ground. A flat hiding-place (e.g. a piece of bark) must be provided for each individual. Temperature should range from 21-30°C within the vivarium and a source of water must be present. Air humidity
has to be maintained at or above 80%. The scorpions will feed on living food (small insect
s like cricket
s).
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of scorpion belonging to the family Scorpionidae. It is distributed widely across tropical and subtropical southeastern Asia, including Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, as well as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
(Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
). It is outstanding for containing some of the largest living species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of scorpions.
Taxonomy
The genus was introduced by C.G. Ehrenberg (in Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828), originally as a subgenusSubgenus
In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...
of the genus Buthus. It was elevated to genus rank by F. Karsch in 1879.
H.W.C. Couzijn (1978, 1981) subdivided the genus into several subgenera
Subgenus
In biology, a subgenus is a taxonomic rank directly below genus.In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea tigris Linnaeus, which...
, but F. Kovařík (2004) synonym
Synonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
ized these subgenera with the nominal genus.
Diversity
The content of this genus may vary, depending on the authority. At least 33 species are known, many of which are quite similar in appearance:- Heterometrus barberi (Pocock, 1900)
- Heterometrus beccaloniae Kovařík, 2004
- Heterometrus bengalensis (C.L. Koch 1841)
- Heterometrus cimrmani Kovařík, 2004
- Heterometrus cyaneus (C.L. Koch, 1836)
- Heterometrus flavimanus (Pocock, 1900)
- Heterometrus fulvipes (C.L. Koch, 1837)
- Heterometrus gravimanus (Pocock, 1894)
- Heterometrus indus (DeGeer, 1778)
- Heterometrus kanarensis (Pocock, 1900)
- Heterometrus keralaensis Tikader & Bastawade, 1983
- Heterometrus laoticus Couzijn, 1981
- Heterometrus latimanus (Pocock, 1894)
- Heterometrus liangi Zhu & Yang, 2007
- Heterometrus liophysa (Thorell, 1888)
- Heterometrus liurus (Pocock, 1897)
- Heterometrus longimanus (Herbst, 1800)
- Heterometrus madraspatensis (Pocock, 1900)
- Heterometrus mysorensis Kovařík, 2004
- Heterometrus nepalensis Kovařík, 2004
- Heterometrus petersii (Thorell, 1876)
- Heterometrus phipsoni (Pocock, 1893)
- Heterometrus rolciki Kovařík, 2004
- Heterometrus scaber (Thorell, 1876)
- Heterometrus sejnai Kovařík, 2004
- Heterometrus spinifer (Ehrenberg, 1828)
- Heterometrus swammerdamiHeterometrus swammerdamiHeterometrus swammerdami is one of the largest scorpion species in the world. It can reach lengths of over and can weigh as much as . Its venom is not usually lethal to humans because it has evolved to kill its prey by crushing it with its pincers and not by venom....
Simon, 1872 - Heterometrus telanganaensis Javed, Mirza, Tampal & Lourenço, 2010
- Heterometrus thorellii (Pocock, 1897)
- Heterometrus tibetanus (Lourenço, Qi & Zhu, 2005)
- Heterometrus tristis (Henderson, 1919)
- Heterometrus ubicki (Kovařík, 2004)
- Heterometrus wroughtoni (Pocock, 1899)
- Heterometrus xanthopus (Pocock, 1897)
General characteristics
Members of Heterometrus are generally large-sized scorpions (100 - >200 mm total length). Coloration is dark in most species, often uniformly brown or black, sometimes with a greenish shine; with brighter colored telsonTelson
The telson is the last division of the body of a crustacean. It is not considered a true segment because it does not arise in the embryo from teloblast areas as do real segments. It never carries any appendages, but a forked "tail" called the caudal furca is often present. Together with the...
, walking legs and/or pedipalp
Pedipalp
Pedipalps , are the second pair of appendages of the prosoma in the subphylum Chelicerata. They are traditionally thought to be homologous with mandibles in Crustacea and insects, although more recent studies Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi), are the second pair of appendages of the...
pincers in some species.
The scorpions are heavily build with especially powerful and globose pedipalp
Pedipalp
Pedipalps , are the second pair of appendages of the prosoma in the subphylum Chelicerata. They are traditionally thought to be homologous with mandibles in Crustacea and insects, although more recent studies Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi), are the second pair of appendages of the...
pincers, broad mesosoma
Mesosoma
The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings....
l tergites and a proportionally slender and thin metasoma
Metasoma
The metasoma is the posterior part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the mesosoma. In insects, it contains most of the digestive tract, respiratory system, and circulatory system, and the apical segments are typically...
. The telson is proportionally small and the stinger often shorter than the vesicle. The cephalothorax
Cephalothorax
The cephalothorax is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. The word cephalothorax is derived from the Greek words for head and thorax...
and mesosoma are largely devoid of carinae and granulation and the median eyes are situated in a small, lenticular depression on the cephalothorax.
Toxicity
Inflammation
Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...
, oedema, swelling and redness of the skin, lasting for hours to a few days. A study has shown that plant extracts known in the traditional Thai medicine as natural scorpion venom antidotes are effective as symptomatic treatment of H. laoticus stings. The protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
heteroscorpine-1 was found the major component of the venom in H. laoticus.
Habitat
Species of Heterometrus live in vegetated, often forrested, humid regions with subtropical to tropical climateClimate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
. As most scorpions they are predominantly nocturnal and hide in burrows, below logs and in leaf litter.
In captivity
Due to their impressive size, low toxicity and docile behaviour, species of Heterometrus are popular pet scorpions. Unlike many other scorpions they can be kept in pairs or small groups.A group of up to three adult individuals need a vivarium
Vivarium
A vivarium is a usually enclosed area for keeping and raising animals or plants for observation or research...
c. 60 x 30 x 30 cm (for 1-3 specimens) in size with a thick layer of peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
or similar plant litter substrate at the ground. A flat hiding-place (e.g. a piece of bark) must be provided for each individual. Temperature should range from 21-30°C within the vivarium and a source of water must be present. Air humidity
Humidity
Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
has to be maintained at or above 80%. The scorpions will feed on living food (small insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s like cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
s).
External links
- Keeping instructions for H. spinifer and H. laoticus. Exotic Pets
- Images and descriptions of various species of Heterometrus. Mes Scorpions