Banded Flat Rock Scorpion

🔤 Taxonomy

Hadogenes paucidens is an accepted name in GBIF, but its identity and range still need taxonomic clarification. Prendini’s revision treated it as a species of dubious validity, confirmed from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with Tanzania marked as uncertain. Animals in the trade may therefore carry this name without a traceable locality or diagnostic identification.

Hadogenes trichiurus paucidens Werner, 1939 is a junior homonym, not a subspecies of H. paucidens Pocock, 1896.

📌 Description

This is a strongly flattened rock-crevice scorpion with long pedipalps and a narrow profile. Zoo Praha reports females around 14–16 cm and males around 13–15 cm; the very large 20–22 cm figures repeated in some trade sheets probably borrow from larger Hadogenes, especially H. troglodytes. Males are usually more slender, with a proportionally longer metasoma.

The sting is generally described as low in medical importance, but species-specific clinical evidence is limited. A sting, powerful pinch or allergic reaction remains possible. Treat every specimen as venomous and do not handle it.

Quick reference	Target
Adult enclosure	At least 40 × 30 × 25 cm
Main shelter	Several rigid, body-tight rock-like crevices
Warm side	28–30 °C
Cool side / night	20–23 °C / 17–22 °C
Humidity	40–60%; one slightly humid retreat
Feeding	One suitable insect every 7–14 days
Social housing	Solitary

🌍 Distribution

The best-supported published country record is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tanzania appears in older summaries and an institutional husbandry record, but Prendini marked that part of the range as uncertain. The map therefore highlights only the confirmed country instead of presenting the disputed Tanzanian record as settled.

Like other Hadogenes, it is associated with rocky dry-savanna sites and uses narrow fissures to avoid heat and predators. There are too few precise, verified occurrence coordinates for a responsible species-level climate table.

Range map

⚖️ Legal status

As checked on 22 August 2026, H. paucidens was not listed in the CITES Appendices, the EU wildlife-trade annexes or the Bern Convention appendices. This does not make collection or trade unrestricted: range-state wildlife and export rules, destination-country import controls and local rules for venomous animals may still apply. Keep the invoice, breeder or importer details, transfer documents and any evidence of captive breeding.

🤌 Husbandry

Keep one scorpion per enclosure. A sales listing for a pair or group is not evidence that permanent cohabitation is safe. Crevices are defensible resources, and an attack can happen out of sight where intervention is impossible.

Quarantine a new arrival for 60–90 days with separate tools. Record its weight, feeding and moults, inspect it for dehydration, missing appendages, mites and dark or fuzzy lesions, and ask for locality or breeding records. If the seller cannot document the identification, retain the trade name in your records as Hadogenes cf. paucidens rather than treating it as certain.

Prepare a catch container before opening the enclosure. Use long tools and a firm, clipped or locked lid. Its flat body can pass through cable ports and gaps that look too narrow for a large scorpion.

💡 Lighting

UVB is not required. Provide a low-intensity 10–12-hour day cycle and permanent darkness inside each crevice. Do not expose the enclosure to direct sunlight; rockwork and glass can trap dangerous heat quickly.

🌡 Heating and temperature

Maintain 22–28 °C ambient, with a 28–30 °C warm surface and a 20–23 °C cool retreat. A night drop to 17–22 °C is acceptable for an established, healthy animal. Heat one end from the side or above under thermostat control, leaving other cracks cooler.

Place probe tips in representative crevices. Surface or room readings alone do not show what a flattened scorpion experiences between two slabs. Do not impose a cold seasonal rest on a juvenile, thin, recently imported or unhealthy animal.

💧 Humidity and water

Keep most of the enclosure dry and well ventilated, roughly 40–60% relative humidity, with a shallow water dish. Maintain one protected lower corner or crevice that is slightly humid, especially before a moult. The animal must be able to choose between dry and mildly humid retreats.

Constant misting, wet moss across the enclosure and condensation encourage fungal growth. The opposite extreme—bone-dry air with no water and no humid refuge—raises dehydration and moulting risk.

🌿 Enclosure and decoration

Construct several horizontal cracks from securely fixed slate, cork bark or inert stone-effect panels. The useful gap depends on the individual: it should be narrow enough for the scorpion to touch both surfaces without trapping its limbs. Offer more than one width and check that the animal can turn or leave safely.

Support every heavy slab directly from the enclosure base and bond stacks so that maintenance or movement cannot cause collapse. Use only a thin layer of compact soil, clay and sand because this is a fissure specialist, not a deep loose-sand burrower. Keep ventilation openings small enough to exclude the entire animal.

🪳 Feeding

Offer captive-reared roaches, crickets or locusts no larger than the scorpion’s carapace. An adult usually needs one appropriately sized prey item every 7–14 days; juveniles can receive smaller prey somewhat more often. Long fasting can be normal, especially before a moult.

Remove uneaten prey within 24 hours and immediately when premoult is suspected. Feeder insects can injure a soft or moulting scorpion. Do not use wild-caught prey or routine calcium and vitamin powders.

🦂 Breeding and young

Breeding requires correctly identified adults, separate housing and a plan for slow-growing young. Introduce a pair only under direct supervision in a neutral, escape-secure enclosure with barriers and catch containers ready. Separate them when courtship ends or aggression begins.

The species is viviparous. Zoo Praha reports gestation lasting more than a year and litters of about 20–30 young. Leave a female and the young on her back undisturbed until after their first moult; there are no eggs to remove or incubate. Species identity and parentage should follow every offspring when it is transferred.

🩺 Common problems

Wide open hides, loose unstable slabs, overheating and uniformly wet housing are the main setup failures. Poorly documented imports may also arrive dehydrated, injured or misidentified. Persistent weight loss, uncoordinated movement, an incomplete moult or spreading black, white or fuzzy lesions warrants isolation and advice from an exotics veterinarian experienced with arachnids.

Never pull a scorpion from a crack by the tail or legs. If a shelter must be removed, dismantle it in a closed room and let the animal enter a dark catch container voluntarily.

📌 Conclusion

H. paucidens needs stable, body-tight crevices, a dry ventilated enclosure and a modest thermal gradient. Because its published range and trade identity remain uncertain, documented provenance is part of correct husbandry, not an optional label detail.