I work in a pet store. I know how things sold in stores aren't always what they seem (or what they are labeled as). I guess it should be known that our supplier is L.A. Reptile. A few days back we got our list of what was available for our reptile order (this includes inverts). Israeli gold scorpion was on it. I looked it up and decided it was something I was interested in, so I told my boss to place an order for one (for $20 in the store it sure beats ordering one and paying $30-50 for LAG delivery, plus I get 10% off
). They came in yesterday and immediately I knew something was wrong. This thing looked nothing remotely like a S. maurus. At first I thought they had sent us another S. masaenus, but that wasn't it either (and I would have been disappointed because I already have one
). Then I thought "Oh crap, they sent us a deathstalker." The coloring isn't quite right though. This guy has that darker segment just after the stinger but it's nowhere near as prominent as on a L. quinquestriatus and the abdomen isn't quite dark enough. After some poking around (reminder that I'm not even close to a scorpion expert) the closest thing I can come up with is Buthacus leptochelys, the Egyptian green.
What's your opinion?
