The European Scorpion Euscorpius flavicaudis (DeGeer, 1778) in Essex
A total of 24 young, pure white first instar scorpions was eventually counted, though one or two may
have been missed. Sadly, I was unable to provide adequate acceptable prey items of small enough
size and all the youngsters died soon after successful completion of their first moult (which took
place at age about one week). As stated above, the gestation period in this species can be up to one
year and so it is not possible to establish if the species was mated in Chelmsford implying the
presence of a male and thus, the possible presence of a small colony, or if it was already mated and
accidentally brought home from the previous summer's foreign holiday abroad.
As if bringing the saga to an end, the adult scorpion was found dead in its box about three weeks
after my return from abroad.
Acknowledgements
I am extremely grateful to John Horrocks, the RSPCA Inspector who brought me the scorpion in the
first place. I am also most grateful to Dr Tim G. Benton, University of Stilling, for much helpful
information on records of Euscorpius flavicaudis in Britain and for comments on the 'final' draft of
this paper. George W. Candelin, Peter Smithers, Peter G. Sutton and Leon Truscott very kindly
responded to my please for information via the Internet. Our Editor, Peter Harvey, has been extremely
helpful in obtaining reprints of papers and notes on the scorpion from the arachnological literature
and also took the photograph of the Chelmsford scorpion, which accompanies this paper.
References
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