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Photo#9813
Desert Scorpion - Paravaejovis spinigerus - female

Desert Scorpion - Paravaejovis spinigerus - Female
Rincon Unit, Saguaro Natl Monument, Tucson, Arizona, USA
April 17, 1979
Size: about 3 cm
We turned over a rock to see what could be seen and disturbed this scorpion. We found a better image so we substituted it for the first post.

Vaejovis spinigerus
Family: Vaejovidae,
Genus: Vaejovis
species: spinigerus
Author: (Wood, 1863).
Common name: stripetail scorpion (noticeable in this photo).
Sex: Female, note wide girth. Not necessarily "fatness", but the width of the mesosoma segments (main body), the middle tergites (plates) are wider than the more anterior ones. In males, the tergites are usually the same width or nearly so.
ID: Strong, striped tail with enlarged, spinelike, terminal granules on dorsal keels (a character shared by most Vaejovis scorpions, but not on Paruroctonus); hands relatively small, rarely robust (like this one), and smooth (no keels), lustrous. Dorsum lustrous, granular, usually darker than appendages. Carapace slightly darker behind interocular triangle (3 sets of eyes: 2 triads lateral, at front corners; 1 pair median, visible here in middle of carapace), with interocular region pale.
Size: Adults to 55 mm, large females may be up to 70 mm (I've seen 2 at that size!)

Comments: This species is one of the most common in Arizona and also occurs in western New Mexico and SE California into Mexico. Most common in chaparral of the Upper Sonoran Desert. Readily found under rocks. Sting painful, not dangerous.

Kari J McWest, Canyon, Texas

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