52 Rowland M. Shelley 



treated at Carteret General Hospital and released. A pest control operator 

 treated inside and outside the building with pesticide but could not 

 determine the source of the scorpions. I visited the site in October 

 1994 and found no specimens and little shelter near the building. The 

 yard of the complex was immaculate, and the building is bordered 

 by low bushes surrounded with pine straw. Some bushes had 

 grown into relatively dense hedges, and the only external shelter of 

 consequence was beneath these hedges. I spent two hours searching 

 around the building, elsewhere on the complex, and in nearby wooded 

 areas in Emerald Isle and the western tip of Bogue Banks without 

 finding any scorpions. 



Distribution — According to Muma (1967), C. hentzi occurs 

 throughout Florida, occurring in Columbia County, on the border 

 with Georgia, and in Escambia, the westernmost county. It should 

 therefore be expected in the southern coastal islands of Georgia, where 

 Say (1821) collected scorpions. North Carolina specimens were 

 examined as follows (Fig. 6): 



Durham Co., Durham, Duke Univ., 1 spmn., 8 September 1987, 

 C. Brock (NCSU). Carteret Co., Bogue Banks, Emerald Isle, 1 spmn., 

 Sept. 1993, D. McCluskey (NCSM). Brunswick Co., Bald Head Island, 

 1 mi (1.6 km) E of Marina, 1 spmn., July 1992, collector unknown 

 (RNH) and unknown site on island, 1 spmn., February 1993, collector 

 unknown (NCSM). 



Remarks — An individual of C. hentzi was encountered in Raleigh 

 on 10 March 1938 "in strawberries from Florida"; one of C. gracilis 

 (Latreille) was discovered in Raleigh in the fall 1940 "in box shipped 

 from Florida"; and an undetermined Neotropical scorpion was found 

 in Raleigh on 13 December 1937 "in bunch of bananas from Central & 

 South America" (all specimens in NCDA). Although not encountered 

 in North Carolina environments, these specimens confirm that commercial 

 activities, like importing foods and fruits from other states and foreign 

 countries, is a key mechanism through which allochthonus organisms 

 are accidentally introduced into distant areas. The importation of 

 Florida palm trees for planting along the North Carolina coast can only 

 aid the spreading of C. hentzi and may result in its becoming established 

 in warm areas like Bald Head Island, where winters are not much cooler 

 than those in northern Florida where the scorpion is common. 



Family Vaejovidae 

 Vaejovis carolinianus (Beauvois) 

 Habitat — I collected V. carolinianus in Cherokee County from 

 beneath large rocks on a dirt road and leaves in a deciduous forest 



