Hottentotta sp. "India"
Identity confidence: provisional. This is a genus, group, or trade name rather than a confirmed species. Treat it as the closest match we can stand behind, and use the more conservative end of any range.
Indian Black and Red Scorpion: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: The owner reports this batch came through the same upstream supply line represented in comparable vendor listings as captive-bred Hottentotta sp. India and labeled medically significant. Those screenshots are trade-channel comparators, not exact vendor-lot records. The open name remains deliberate: the supply-line match does not establish a species or locality. Big Z's applies Hottentotta tamulus-level containment and handling precautions as a conservative house ruling, not an identification. No hand contact: use long tools, a staged catch cup and secondary containment. Build for a small stone-associated Hottentotta with a dry exposed surface, sheltered damp zone, effective ventilation and escape-proof openings. This 0.25-0.5 in batch is small juveniles/scorplings, exact instar unknown. - Big Z
Group: ScorpionsDifficulty: Spice 5: ExtremeSetup: Unidentified Hottentotta house analogue: stable soil/sand, flat stone or cork cover, dry exposed surface, sheltered damp zone, cross-ventilation, and H. tamulus-level containment without asserting species identity.Handling: Never. This is kept as though it were Hottentotta tamulus, and nobody handles a tamulus.
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 79-86 F (26-30 C) is a Big Z starting band, not a published optimum for this unidentified animal. It is informed by regional conditions and Hottentotta analogues. Provide a gradient, avoid uncontrolled overheating or under-floor heat, and adjust from feeding, posture, retreat use, and molt records. |
|---|---|
| Humidity | No numeric RH % target is established. Keep most of the surface dry, maintain one reliably damp sheltered zone, provide water when the animal is large enough to use a safe dish, and preserve cross-ventilation. This physical method is a conservative house synthesis; rainfall-population genetics do not establish captive tolerance. |
| Setup Type | Unidentified Hottentotta house analogue: stable soil/sand, flat stone or cork cover, dry exposed surface, sheltered damp zone, cross-ventilation, and H. tamulus-level containment without asserting species identity. |
| Substrate | Use a stable soil or soil/sand blend with a flat stone or cork retreat, a mostly dry exposed surface, and one sheltered zone that can retain moisture. Stone-associated field records support the retreat; exact mix and depth are Big Z house choices. The mixed-species laboratory setup used soil and stones but had only 2% scorpling survival, so it is not treated as a successful scorpling protocol. |
| Feeding | The best fetched laboratory evidence used insects smaller than the scorpion and a weekly schedule, but it pooled H. tamulus, H. rugiscutis and Heterometrus and reported only 2% scorpling survival. For this 0.25-0.5 in batch, offer a very small pre-killed prey item at a cautious recorded house cadence; remove leftovers promptly, stop live prey around molt, and change frequency from observed intake and body condition. No evidence-backed twice-weekly claim is made. |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 5: Extreme |
| Handling | Never. This is kept as though it were Hottentotta tamulus, and nobody handles a tamulus. |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- Small juvenile/scorpling (0.25-0.5 in as supplied): exact instar unknown; individual escape-proof enclosure, flat stone/cork retreat, dry surface, sheltered damp zone, and water delivered without a drowning hazard
- Juvenile: secure individual enclosure with simple cover, cross-ventilation, localized moisture, and a safely sized open water dish
- Adult: size depends on unresolved species; if H. tamulus, the 2007 revision gives 50-90 mm. Do not use candidate-species adult size to stage this batch.
Warnings First
- The owner reports this batch came through the same upstream supply line represented by Arachnid Rarities and comparable vendors as captive-bred Hottentotta sp. India. That supports the open trade mapping and advertised source status, not an exact vendor-lot match, species diagnosis or locality. Big Z's applies worst-case H. tamulus containment without identifying the animal.
- An older cohort of 45 severe H. tamulus envenomings had 25% mortality under conventional therapy, not in untreated patients. Modern outcomes vary with treatment access and timing; no universal 3-5% child/ICU fatality estimate is published here.
- One cited H. tamulus cohort of 888 stings reported pulmonary oedema in 22.7%. That is a cohort result, not an expected individual probability.
- A 2021 proteomics review relays a 1993 subcutaneous rat study: LD50 1.3 +/- 0.14 mg/kg in juveniles and 2.2 +/- 0.21 mg/kg in adults. Animal LD50 does not predict an individual human outcome.
- A systematic review found 92% of pooled scorpion-related myocarditis cases across several species were under 18. That is not an H. tamulus severe-case denominator and is not used to characterize this stock.
- A suspected sting is a medical emergency. Seek emergency professional care immediately and contact the appropriate poison service; this guide provides no treatment advice.
Simple Care
- House one animal per enclosure.
- Treat the stock under its confirmed open supplier label Hottentotta sp. India; H. tamulus precautions are a worst-case house ruling, not an identification.
- Provide flat stone or cork cover over stable substrate with a dry surface and sheltered damp zone.
- Use 79-86 F as a house starting band with a gradient, not a species optimum.
- Use escape-proof cross-ventilation and keep every opening smaller than the animal's metasoma.
- Offer very small pre-killed prey at a cautious recorded house cadence; no validated scorpling schedule exists.
- Add a safely sized open water dish only when drowning risk can be controlled.
- No hand contact. Use long tools, a catch cup, and secondary containment.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- The genus is certain but the species is unresolved. Candidate H. tamulus records support stone-associated, synanthropic microhabitats, but candidate-species ecology is not promoted to fact about the batch.
- A mixed H. tamulus, H. rugiscutis and Heterometrus laboratory protocol used soil, stones, water and moisture as needed. Its 97% survival was aggregate while scorpling survival was 2%, so it cannot validate this stock's small-animal setup.
- Rainfall-associated genetic structure in H. tamulus populations is biogeography, not a captive tolerance experiment. Physical moisture cues replace rainfall-derived RH claims.
- Use a simple layout, effective escape-proof cross-ventilation, a latched lid, and secondary containment. Exact depth and mix are house choices.
- House individually. The seller represents the stock as captive bred; exact species, locality, sex, lineage and instar remain unknown.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- ADVERSARIAL LIFE-STAGE FINDING: the cited 18-month laboratory paper reports 97% survival across pooled study animals but only 2% scorpling survival. The adult/mixed-colony routine cannot validate a scorpling schedule.
- For this 0.25-0.5 in batch, very small pre-killed prey at a cautious recorded Big Z house cadence replaces the unsupported twice-weekly prescription.
- Stop live prey around molt, remove leftovers promptly, and adjust from intake and body condition. Supplier length does not establish instar.
- Congeneric life-history values may remain research context only; they do not predict growth, brood timing, or maturity for unidentified stock.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: India at trade-label level only; the exact species and locality are unresolved. If the stock were Hottentotta tamulus, Kovarik (2007) documents India and Pakistan, with examined material from eleven Indian states at about 200-800 m. A Jaffna, Sri Lanka population is confirmed from 2012 specimens; introduction is hypothesized, not established. Nepal is literature-reported but the voucher basis was not recovered. None of those candidate-species records identifies this batch.
- Habitat translation: The owner reports a shared upstream supply-line mapping and a captive-bred representation, but no verified species or locality. Big Z's therefore uses a conservative Hottentotta house analogue: stable soil or soil/sand substrate, flat stone or cork cover, a dry exposed surface, one sheltered damp zone, water when safely sized, effective cross-ventilation, a warm gradient and a simple escape-resistant layout. H. tamulus field and laboratory material informs the analogue but is not represented as species-specific evidence for this animal.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Multiple Hottentotta species are accepted from India, including taxa described after the 2007 revision; current sources disagree on the exact count, so no fixed number is asserted.
- If the stock were H. tamulus, much clinical literature would use the former combination Mesobuthus tamulus. That literature is a worst-case risk analogue, not an identification.
- Color is not diagnostic. Resolution requires adult measurements and diagnostic morphology such as pectinal counts and metasomal characters, examined by a competent identifier.
- Medical evidence is retained only with cohort, animal, route, and source-chain context. Customer-facing drug comparisons and treatment-outcome instructions were removed.
- A suspected sting requires immediate emergency professional care and poison-service contact; this guide does not provide treatment advice.
- The target is not listed in CITES Appendices valid 5 March 2026. That says nothing about source-stock identity, lawful collection, domestic sale, or import/export legality.