wrong facts

[matthew spooner]

hi guys, whilst browsing a book shelf in a shop i stumbled accross a book called spiders and scoprions. it is a look inside book and includes some very detailed pictures explaining the ins and outs of spiders and scorpions. anyway i handed over the cash and took it home for a better look.
i am not an expert with scorpions but there was one piece of information that caught my eye as being wrong and i wanted to double check before sending the correcting email to the publishers.
the part of the book about scoprions uses an emporer scorpion as its example. first of all it lists it as being the largest scorpion in the world, correct me if i am mistaken but isnt the largest the Heterometrus swammerdami? it then labels the emporer scorpion as having the scientific name Typhlochactas mitchelli. isnt it Pandinus imperator?? just thought i would clear up these bits of info in my mind

[matthew spooner]

..

oh and check this bad boy out

http://www.caver.net/other/story.html

[Colin D Wilson]

Not sure about the H swammerdami being the largest, it could be "Bulk wise", i think i'm right in saying that the H troglodytes is the longest.
The T mitchelli is a blind mexican scorpion.

http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v16_n3/JoA_v16_p365.pdf

The photo story.....Gave me a laugh, my 13 year old lad could photoshop better than that though

Get yer email on it's way Matt!!

[Ray Hale]

The problem with publishers is that they dont often take any notice of what the author has actually written. For instance in Ann Webb's Scorpions book there are a number of mislabeled pictures. even on that is the mirror image of the other with another name. This is not the fault of the writer and is often done at layout to make things "fit" the page. Also they are set up by peoeple who have no knowledge of the field and dont know what they are looking at. Still no excuses for the misinformation though as I suppose its down to the research of the author. With many books particularly in our field they are out of date before they are published, names change, ideas differ etc.etc. I dont know this book so I cant comment on its validity.


Who wrote it Matt?

PS top picture.........if only

[Stuart Common]

it then labels the emporer scorpion as having the scientific name Typhlochactas mitchelli. isnt it Pandinus imperator??

Hi Matthew, the Emperor/Imperial is indeed a Pandinus Imperator

hehe that is a badboy btw!

[Richard Shah]

Not sure about the H swammerdami being the largest, it could be "Bulk wise", i think i'm right in saying that the H troglodytes is the longest.
The T mitchelli is a blind mexican scorpion.

http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v16_n3/JoA_v16_p365.pdf

The photo story.....Gave me a laugh, my 13 year old lad could photoshop better than that though

Get yer email on it's way Matt!!

Lol... I think anybody could...

[matthew spooner]

the book is a readers digest book and is written by a Dr. Paul Hillyard. i understand that information gets misused by publishers but i expected better from a book made by readers digest, aimed at educating people, mainly young people on this subject. the spider part of the book, apart from being very badly illustrated is quite accurate though

[Ray Hale]

I thought as much. Paul is one of the worlds leading arachnologists and a former curator of the Natural History Museum so he know his stuff. Sounds like he is a victim of an over eager typesetter

[matthew spooner]

u know summet, i have just re read it. it condradicts itself. it says the largest is the imperial scorpion but doesnt list its scientific name, then it says that the t.mitchelli is the smallest scorpion, being only 9mm in length, but then in the diagram it has a piccy that is labelled as imperial scorpion with scientific name of t.mitchelli. i think you are right ray, damn these uneducated publishers lol