A Suitcase Full Of Scorpions
Last Saturday's Terraristics Fair was a very-very good one, indeed.
This has been the first time we went out there as sellers, not just buyers - it was the perfect place to get rid of my thirty-four Hadogenes scorplings, so we put the money together with Dávid and Csabi (our friend from the Zoo) to rent a table and pack out. But by the time we got there, the whole crazy bunch of ours turned up at the table, so we ended up sharing space with Hőbe Gabi (the guy with the glasses and the rattlesnakes and black widows at home) and Lala (spider maniac) as well, with Csosza and Barbi lingering around all the time. It was not only the scorpions I wanted to sell, but I wanted to find a good buyer for my pair of anoles, too (I loved them, but I'll be needing their space for the frogs), and a couple of assassin bugs as well (since they are breeding like they were on Viagra or something). It was a small store of goods, but much more efficient than - for example - Dávid's breed of 238 Poecilotheria tarantulas, which he would have traded in even for beer and cigarettes by the end... :)
Initially I didn't have any ideas about buying anything, but I had a faint hope in my heart that I would finally find Androctonus australis scorpions. These species have been really out of commercial trade for years, and although I knew that some were circulating in the hobby's inner circles, I never saw a single one in all my life. The first thing I was told when we arrived was that Csabi had one, and was waiting for a guy who wanted to buy it. Boy, did I got excited! He said I could have it if the buyer won't turn up, so that put me on the fence a bit, but after an hour or so it became clear that I was going to get it. And I did - a reason that made me look like a grinning monkey all day! Here’s a pic:
As you can see, it is a thicktail scorpion too (thickest tail actually! (L) ), and one of the two most dangerous scorpions in the world. Its venom is very powerful, and although not so powerful as that of the Leiurus quinquestriatus (the Death Stalker), it is still considered to be the second most powerful venom amongst scorpions. The statistics show that - on average - this species causes more death in a year than all the other species altogether - hence the Latin name, which means “Man-killer of the South”. Despite the bad name, it is quite a manageable scorp: it is very calm, and aggressive only when disturbed (mind you, he is also very quick then…). And not to mention that it’s beautiful! Its lemon-yellow body is greenish on the ventral side, and its tail and claws are orange that turns into deep mauve/brown at the ends. And the real kick is the tail! It is so robust like a bony mace or something. Really impressive!
It is not a young scorpion, and Csabi didn’t make a really thorough job at raising him, but he’s OK, and I plan to do everything I can to nurse him back up to shape. I’m already planning to buy a female for him - especially that there is no trace of the species on the Hungarian market…
I also wanted to take on Lala’s offer, and buy a subadult H. maculata off him (the white/grey tarantula), but at the end I didn’t. On the other hand, I got a pair of some Tanzanian millipedes from him as a giveaway, as he also got them free along with one of his deals.
Which takes us to deals. So far, it went beyond my comprehension that at a terraristics fair only a fracture of the obtained animals get obtained actually for money. No, as I got to understood it, they get obtained for other animals. What I’m talking about was immediately clear when - having returned from having a smoke - I saw Dávid playing along with a chameleon he hadn’t have up to then. I was surprised, since Dávid is not a lizard person at all, so naturally I asked. It turned out that there was a Slovakian guy running around, trading everything he could find for chameleons (8-10.000.- Ft was one, if you bought it). It looked a very fine deal, Dávid gave six scorps for it (he had about twenty), so I tried, too (Ági really wants one still). It didn’t work out, the guy had already traded away a lot of his stock, and my scorps were not really interesting for him, but it got me into a trading craze, so I was running around, asking everyone if they were interested in my scorps. Unfortunately they weren't, but just wait until my baby whip spiders hatch, ha-haa!
Eventually, I managed to trade, though: Lala wanted a black widow really bad, and the guy needed my scorpions, so I gave 7 or 8 away - I didn’t need them, but Lala was really grateful for the spider!
Puding (all-around Hungarian scorpion bigwig) also wanted to trade with me - he desperately needed my Hadogeneses, and also my Androctonus. I was not interested in his Hottentotta and Parabuthus species, so I ended up giving him and his friend 3-3 scorps for free. Who knows when such generosity might come in handy? (He didn't agree with my idea of him giving me his baby Hector for my stuff, but nevertheless we agreed on an Androctonus mating in the near future.)
Even this way, I managed to sell/deal/giveaway all of my scorps (and even my Assassin bugs), which paid for our tickets, our part in the table, the Androctonus, and still left us some 5000.- Forints left. Dávid gave me another chocolate Babycurus instead of the one my orange one killed, and it was also nice to see Ági getting the hang of selling animals! She was so sweet, trying to describe the difference between two deadly huntsman spiders to a customer... :)
The day was very good, the company was great (we were cracking jokes nonstop), and - even though I didn’t buy the pair of Suriname Toads I had my eyes on for 9000 HUF each - I call it one of the best and funniest days of late!