Scorpions of North Carolina 53 



(Shelley 1975a), but I typically encounter the scorpion in association 

 with decaying pine logs and stumps, particularly under loose bark. 

 Rossman (1979) encountered specimens in clay soil on a stream bank, 

 and beneath decaying logs, leaf litter, slabs of wood, and the bark of 

 a dead hardwood tree. Gibbons et al. (1990) stated that V. carolinianus 

 was restricted to moist woodland habitats, where it occurs beneath 

 leaves, logs, and other litter. Several specimens from Transylvania 

 and Polk counties were found in and around houses; that from 

 Guilford County was taken within a house; and the one from Iredell 

 County was discovered in a sink in the basement of a house, but it 

 could have been imported from north Georgia, where the collector 

 spent the previous week. The specimen from Yancey County was 

 discovered in a tent at a campground. 



Distribution — The southeastern United States from the Ohio River 

 in central Kentucky through eastern Tennessee, southwestern North 

 Carolina, and the Fall Zone of South Carolina and Georgia, to eastern 

 Mississippi and westcentral Tennessee, with a disjunct population in the 

 Tunica Hills of southwestern Mississippi and southeastern 

 Louisiana (Rossman 1979, Gibbons et al. 1990, Shelley 1994). In North 

 Carolina, V. carolinianus is native to Polk, Transylvania, and Cherokee 

 counties, spreading into these areas and up the Toxaway and Hiwassee 

 river valleys from adjacent parts of northern Georgia and western South 

 Carolina It also penetrates the western periphery by extending up the 

 Little Tennessee and French Broad river valleys from eastern Tennessee. 

 The scorpion also has been encountered in seven other counties, five 

 in the interior of the State and two on the border with piedmont and 

 coastal South Carolina, which probably represent accidental human 

 importations and examples of intra-state introductions. The Haywood 

 County site, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Province and at 5,000 ft. 

 (1,500 m) elevation, the highest reported altitude for the scorpion, 

 surely reflects an importation, as V. carolinianus was found in a 

 woodpile that was brought from Balsam Gap, Jackson County. The 

 scorpion was probably transported from the latter site (open circle in 

 Fig. 6); Haywood County is also in the heart of the Blue Ridge and an 

 unlikely spot for a native population. North Carolina specimens were 

 examined as follows: 



Yancey Co., Crabtree Meadows, along Blue Ridge Pkwy., 1 spmn., 

 8 June 1960, L. Mason (SEM). Madison Co., 1 mi (1.6 km) SE Walnut, 

 along US hwys. 25/70, 1 spmn., 25 August 1981, B. Hill (NCSM). 

 Haywood Co., Mt. Pisgah Cpgd., 1 spmn., August 1993, B. Randolph 

 (RNH). Swain Co., 0.5 mi (0.8 km) N Tapoco, along Little Tenn. R., 

 2 spmns., 13 August 1985, R. Gaul, J. Whitcomb, D. Anthony, R. Lee 



