Ten Reasons Scorpions Are Super Cool

 

I had the opportunity to lead a couple scorpion walks last weekend at the Great Basin National Park 2021 Reptile BioBlitz. I had shown people scorpions before and knew a tiny about them, but decided it might be good to beef up what I could share. The more I learned, the more I was amazed. I can't wait to share some of these fun facts with you. 

10. Scorpions have been living on planet Earth for over 400 million years! That means scorpions were alive when the dinosaurs roamed. And they lived long before that. They have survived multiple major extinction events. They will probably be living long after the human species goes extinct.

9. Scorpions are arachnids. That means they have 8 legs. They don't have antennae or wings like insects. Other arachnid relatives are spiders, pseudoscorpions (literally false scorpions because they don't have a stinging tail), opilionids (aka daddy-long-legs), and solfugids (aka camel spiders, wind scorpions). 

8. Over 2,500 species of scorpions are found on the planet. They are found on every continent except Antarctica. Although most are found in deserts, they are also found in the tropics, on high mountains, in caves, and intertidal areas. You can find scorpions as far north as Canada, in some swampy areas like the Everglades, and even islands such as the Florida Keys. 

7. Scorpions are venomous. They deliver the venom via a stinger on their tail. Out of the 2,500 species, only about 35 can deliver a sting that's potentially fatal to humans. The sting delivered by many is dangerous to their prey, which includes flies (I got to see a scorpion capture a fly one night and it was so cool!), crickets, and centipedes. Some of their predators, like meerkats, grasshopper mice, and desert long-eared bats, are immune to their venom.

6. Scorpions are experts in survival. Some can deal with high radioactivity. Some can go a full year without a meal. Some can be submerged for 48 hours and still live. These creatures are tough.

5. There's even a scorpion in the sky! The Babylonians are said to have even put a scorpion in the sky, the constellation. It was later recognized by Ptolemy. The story goes that the mighty hunter Orion was boasting about being able to kill all the animals. Artemis was not pleased, so went to the earth goddess Gaia and asked her to do something. She sent a scorpion. Orion reportedly picked up his big club and bashed the scorpion, but before he did so, the scorpion managed to sting Orion. It was a fatal sting, and the mighty Orion fell to his death. They were both put up into the sky, but on opposite sides. Once Scorpius arises, Orion falls away, and when Orion is seen, Scorpius is absent. They are continually chasing each other around the night sky.

4. They have a mating dance. To mate, a male and female scorpion do a promenade à deux (French for "a walk for two"), where the scorpions grasp pincers and dance around. The male will deposit his spermatophore (sperm packet) on the ground, then help get the female positioned over it so it can be taken into her body. This process can last minutes to several hours.

3. Scorpions give live birth to their babies. The mama scorpion puts her pedipalps under her body and catches the little ones. Then she puts them up on her back and carries them around until their exoskeleton hardens and they get a little bigger. Scorpions can give birth to 3 to 100 babies, and they carry them on their backs from 5 to 25 days, depending on the species. (I really want to see a mama scorpion with babies on her back this summer!)

2. Scorpions usually live 6-10 years (if they survive the first year), but can live up to 25 years. They molt (crack open their exoskeleton and leave it behind and let a new one harden) about 6 times as they grow up. That puts a new twist on growth spurts. This covers a span of 6 months to 6 years, depending on the species. So you might say that some scorpions spend a long time in the "teenager/almost grown up" period!

1. Scorpions fluoresce under blacklight! A part of their exoskeleton makes them reflect the UV light, which makes them super easy to find at night. In fact, dozens of new species have been found in recent years because handheld blacklights have become so easy to obtain. If you've never gone out with a blacklight, I highly recommend it. It's like an Easter egg hunt looking for scorpions. And when you finally are ready to take a break from looking at the ground, look up into the sky and see if you can find Scorpius. 

p.s. I recommend adding your photos to iNaturalist. You'll get a possible identification and also be able to see what other scorpions have been seen in the area!