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Spiderlike creature
Good day,
Could you help me with this thing. We found it on the wall and it seemed it was stalking a gecko. One of the pairs of legs are very long and it has arms with scorpion like claws. Thanks
Regards
Louis Marais
Hi Louis,
Unless you are a gecko or other small creature, the Tailless Whipscorpion is harmless. They are shy nocturnal hunters that are usually found in warm humid locations, but they are also found in warm arid areas.
HI FROM PARADISE !!
HELLO THERE— MY NAME IS JUAN CARLOS, I LIVE IN PUERTO VALLARTA JAL, MEXICO I JUST LOVE YOUR PAGE (AND OFF COURSE INSECTS) I AM SENDING YOU SOME PICTURES OFF A TAILLESS WHIPSCORPION THAT IS MY HAND THANKS (AS YOU CAN SEE MY LANGUAGE IS SPANISH)
Juan Carlos Lemus
Hi Juan Carlos,
We got another letter once that reported the Spanish name for a Tailless Whipscorpion is a Cancle. Thanks for the verification. Your photo is great and will surely creep out some of our readers. We can’t imagine that your tourist bureau advertises with photos of the Tailless Whipscorpion, but we are sure eager to visit your paradise.
Tailless Whip Scorpion
Thought you might like this picture of a Tailless Whip Scorpion which is living in my garage. I live in Peoria, Arizona.
Nicky.
Hi Nicky,
Thanks for sending us you great photograph. We are quite certain that most people who encounter Tailless Whipscorpions have a difficult time believing they are totally harmless. These shy creatures are nocturnal predators.
caribbean spider
Hi!
I love your site–I use it to identify caterpillars all the time. My boyfriend and his brother found this spider in a tunnel in some ruins of an old sugar plantation on St. Kitts W.I. With legs, it was roughly 4 or 5 inches in diameter (and it had plenty of company!) It looks kind of like a giant crab spider to me, but the "pincers" in ours are quite thick and armored and have spikes on them. Can you help? Thanks!
Fawn
Hi Fawn,
This is not a spider, but a Tailless Whipscorpion, a shy and harmless creature unless you are a small edible critter like a cricket.
scorpion & babies updated picture
Hi!
I sent you this picture earlier and didn’t format it correctly. Here is the mama scorpion and her babies I found in my backyard this morning. I’m not sure what kind she is. We live in Round Rock, TX. My family loves your site and we have been able to identify several spiders and insects. Thanks for all you do. Sincerely,
ST
Hi ST,
Female Scorpions will carry their brood about for a short time until the youngsters begin to disperse.
Here’s an odd one
I found this critter on a stucco wall in the vicinity of Piestewa Peak in Phoenix, Arizona. I am quite sure it’s an insect, as the very long appendages appear on close inspection to be antennae. The size of the body is about 3⁄4” long. The antennae are about 3 inches long! The body is very flat, and the shape of the head is just bizarre. In my 56 years living in the Phoenix area I have never seen anything remotely like this creature. Thank you,
Rook Younger
Phoenix, Arizona
Hi Rook
This is not an insect, but an Arachnid. It is a harmless Tailless Whipscorpion. They are not uncommon in humid tropics (though they are also found in arid Arizona), but as they are shy nocturnal hunters, they often go unnoticed.
tailless whipscorpian from Chacala, Mexico
I visited Chacala Mexico (in the state of Najarit). The week that I was there, a strange creature would reappear in the bathroom every night. She freaked me out, but was too larget for me to kill without a seriously guilty conscious. I just left her alone everynight, keeping an eye on her while I used the bathroom, and got out of there as quickly as I could. I assumed she was simply a giant spider, until someone suggested she may be a scorpian. Once I got home, a friend tracked down your website and we were able to conclude this bizarre creature was a tailless whipscorpian, and thankfully not harmful! I though you might be interested in this photo of her. Thanks for providing this info! One more question: are these common, and in what parts of the world?
Thanks,
Anna
Hi Anna,
According to our Audubon Guide, there are about 60 species worldwide and three in North America. They are found in warm climates. Being nocturnal, they are often overlooked.
Is this a scorpion?
Dear Bugman,
I live in central Thailand, and I just killed this thing in my bathroom last night. Is this a real scorpion? A friend just refered me to your site, and I think it might be a tailless whipscorpion. The body of this one was about 2-3 inches long, but we killed a little one a couple weeks ago that was probably only a centimeter long.
Thanks,
Kristen
Hi Kristen,
This is not a Tailless Whipscorpion, since it has a tail. It is a Whipscorpion in the order Uropygi. They have a long whiplike tail instead of a stinger. They have no venom so are not harmful to people. We have a single species in the U.S. that is known as a Vinegarone. Most species in this order can secrete acetic acid, the mild acid found in vinegar, and this lead to the common name. Since they ravenously eat cockroaches and other insects, they are beneficial, and your killing spree amounts to Unnecessary Carnage.
This Creature Gives Me The Creeps
Hi Bug Man
I’m trying to get some info on my co-habitants. Whenever I go to the shed, I always find one wandering around a corner. Can you give me more information about this creature?
Thanx in advance,
Qiniso Mdletshe
Hi Qiniso,
Even though they look creepy, Tailless Whipscorpions are perfectly harmless.
whip scorpion with young
Just in case you might like to see one with her young riding on back.
We would love to post it, but if you didn’t take the photo, we cannot.
Greetings.
Yes, I took the photo.
Photo credit, if you do such a thing…
Photographer: Robert Stephan
Location: Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Taken: March 26, 2006 at 6.39pm EST
Thank you so much Robert,
We are thrilled to have your photo on our site. It will stay on the homepage several days and remain on the scorpion/whipscorpion page as long as we have a site.
mexican tailless whipscorpion – possible undescribed species
hey
I came accross your site while looking for information on a bug my friend found at his house. I found a pic that is the same on your site, and your description said that you had never seen one before. It was found north of manzanillo, in mexico in the one on your site. The one my friend found was here where we live right in manzanillo. It’s called a cancle by the locals, and most of them have never actually seen one, but for the ones that have they seem pretty scared of it. They say it’s more deadly then their deadliest scorpian here. They say the red clawlike things in the front can sting u and kill u in less than 5 mins. I would really like to know if this is true or not, but there just is nothing anywhere about this species! do you know anymore about it? i’m attaching a pic of a dead one that my friend found.
thanks
janet
Hi Janet,
Someone named Scootro also sent this image in to us for identification today, and he described it as a “crab-scorpion-lobster-spider” which is somewhat accurate. Tailless Whipscorpions do not have venom and are not poisonous. Despite the fierce appearance, they are harmless to people, but predators to other arthropods.
Help!!!
Please help with this bug-phobic sleep tonight. I live in south Florida and just moved into a newly constructed house. We had our furniture in storage for about three months. Could you look at the pictures to help identify what type of insect is in these pictures. It looks like some type of scorpian but in Florida???
Grately appreciated,
Celeste Kington
Hi Celeste,
This is definitely a scorpion, and we believe it is a Florida Bark Scorpion, Centruroides gracilis. According to The Scorpion Files site: “This scorpion can inflict very a painful sting, but it is not considered as potent as some of its relatives. Some information indicates that individuals from North America are less venomous than their relatives from Central and South America. …. This species should be handled with care “
