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Scorpion, Vaejovis sp, molted today

Monday, August 22, 2005 | 0 comments

When I checked the smallest of the scorpions I found last Saturday, I first thought it was dead. But on closer inspection it was molting. It was still for a part in its old exoskeleton. I was a little afraid that this one, like the Centruroides gracilis some time ago, might stay stuck with its tail. But when I checked later it was completely out of its old exoskeleton. A perfect molt.

Scorpion, Vaejovis sp., exuvia (cast-off exoskeleton).
Scorpion, Vaejovis sp., exuvia (cast-off exoskeleton).

In the above picture you can clearly see how the little scorpion got out of its old skin. The size of the scorpion exuvia is about 1 cm from head to tail. My best guess is that the scorpion is now 3rd instar, meaning it has molted twice now.

Vaejovis sp. exuvia, under black light
Vaejovis sp. exuvia, under black light

I used the UV LED scorpion detector I made some time ago to take a picture of the exuvia under black light. Since my camera is quite sensitive to UV (black) light I had to edit the above picture a bit, also to get the color close to the actual color of the light emitted by the cast-off skin (fluorescence).

Scorpion molting and fluorescene related

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