''Cheloctonus jonesii'' is a species of

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

in the family

Hormuridae Hormuridae is a family of scorpions in the order Scorpiones. There are about 10 genera and more than 90 described species in Hormuridae. Genera These 11 genera belong to the family Hormuridae: * ''Cheloctonus'' Pocock, 1892 * ''Chiromachetes'' ...

native to southern Africa.

Description

This scorpion grows to be to 9 cm (3.5 in) long. It is variable in appearance, from all black in northern

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

to brown with yellow legs in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

. The legs are otherwise rust-coloured. It has a heavy-set body with stocky legs and stout arms (pedipalps) with short pincers (

chelae A chela ()also called a claw, nipper, or pinceris a pincer (biology), pincer-like organ at the end of certain limbs of some arthropods. The name comes from Ancient Greek , through New Latin '. The plural form is chelae. Legs bearing a chela are ...

). Its

cephalothorax The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms ''prosoma'' and ''opisthosoma'' are equivalent to ''cepha ...

is around 11 mm long and broader (11.5 mm) across. The tail is around 3.5 cm (1.4 in) long. British naturalist

R. I. Pocock Reginald Innes Pocock F.R.S. (4 March 1863 – 9 August 1947) was a British zoologist. Pocock was born in Clifton, Bristol, the fourth son of Rev. Nicholas Pocock and Edith Prichard. He began showing interest in natural history at St. Edward ...

described the scorpion in 1892, naming it after the person who collected the specimen in the Murchison Range in what was then Transvaal, C.R. Jones.

Habitat

''Cheloctonus jonesii'' is native to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini and eastern South Africa, where it is especially common in KwaZulu-Natal, there reaching densities of two burrows per three square metres. In

Jozini Jozini is a settlement in Umkhanyakude District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Jozini is a small town on the main route to Mozambique, and it is close to the Jozini or Pongolapoort Dam. Lake Jozini, as the dam is ca ...

, densities of four per square metre have been reported. It lives in areas of clay-based soil with annual rainfall of 800–1250 mm (30–50 in), shunning waterlogged locales. It excavates a vertical burrow around 18 cm (7 in) long, generally located at the base of a tuft of grass or among multiple tufts. The scorpion takes 2–3 nights to complete this, using its pincers to loosen the ground and then pedipalps and pincers as spades to carry the soil away. It eats dung beetles, which fall into its burrow. ''C. jonesii'' has also been reported killing the

red-billed quelea The red-billed quelea (; ''Quelea quelea''), also known as the red-billed weaver or red-billed dioch, is a small—approximately long and weighing —migratory, sparrow-like bird of the weaver family, Ploceidae, native to Sub-Saharan Africa. ...

. Among creatures that prey on ''C. jonesii'' are large centipedes of the genus ''

Scolopendra ''Scolopendra'' (through Latin from Greek , ''skolopendra'') is a species-rich genus of large tropical centipedes of the family Scolopendridae. Description The genus ''Scolopendra'' contains many species of centipedes found across the world' ...

'', the ground foraging red-billed hornbill (''Tockus erythrorhynchus'') and

eastern yellow-billed hornbill The eastern yellow-billed hornbill (''Tockus flavirostris''), also known as the northern yellow-billed hornbill, is a species of hornbill in the family Bucerotidae. It is found in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania ...

(''T. flavirostris''),

bushveld gerbil The bushveld gerbil (''Gerbilliscus leucogaster'') is a species of rodent found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural ...

(''Gerbilliscus leucogaster''),

Cape porcupine The Cape porcupine (''Hystrix africaeaustralis''), Cape crested porcupine or South African porcupine, is a species of Old World porcupine native to central and southern Africa. Description file:Reserve Sigean - Porc-épic du Cap 05.jpg, left, 1 ...

(''Hystrix africaeaustralis'') and

lesser red musk shrew The lesser red musk shrew (''Crocidura hirta'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabw ...

(''Crocidura hirta'').

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2962207 Hormuridae Scorpions