Colony of Scorpions Eating Winged Termites

[Bibhav Behera]

I had witnessed this behaviour on June 20th around 6 AM in the morning at Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Orissa at a place called Chaurasimal.

This was just after the first rains and there were winged termites coming from within the ground from various places.

But what struck us was that in a small area of around 6'x6' there were close to 25 scorpions catching the winged termites with around 5-6 caught by each. Some even had upto 8-9 in both claws (included). They would then go down holes in the soil and stock them. They would then come back for more.

I had never seen so many scorpions in one place leave aside catching prey like this in such a large scale. We saw the phenomenon for close to an hour or so.
Sharing a few images to show how it looked. Unfortunately I had left my wide angle lens back at the camp. Lesson learnt.

All images shot with 1000D + 300 f/4 @ f/4, ISO 400

PS: Can someone help identify the exact species of the scorpions seen here?

[Bibhav Behera]

Another one

[Bibhav Behera]

One more image.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Great documentation. Very interesting behaviour. This species is quite common, but I've no idea about its ID. How big were they?
TFS

[Vikram Gupchup]

Great Documentation , Bibhav. Thanks a lot for sharing this!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice documentation.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

This is very intresting.TFS

[Mohan Raj]

Bibhav Behera, Very good work including photography. TFS.

[Bibhav Behera]

I just got the IDs confirmed for this scorpion species. It is the Heterometrus tristis. This species is a common species in Odisha and lives in degraded termite mounds and also in tree holes. They live in colonies comprising several generations, sometimes more than 150 individuals.

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Nice documentation Bibhav. Quite interesting to see this behaviour. I guess they're saving up for a rainy day or maybe they plan to nest. Would be interesting to know what they do after stocking!!