Whip Tail Scorpion Vinagaroon
July 13, 2010
After a particulary stormy night in El Paso, I came home feeling like a zombie after a midnight shift, stepped out of my truck and discovered the ugliest, biggest, nastiest bug I have ever seen. That woke me up. It was making it’s way towards my open garage so I bumped it with my boot to redirect it and it got into a defensive/offensive stance that spooked me pretty bad. I just had to take a picture of it. My wife said it was a vinageroon and likes to eat scorpions. She said it was harmless and I should let it stay in the front yard to kill the scorpions. She didn’t see how big this thing was! It was a full 6 inches from whip to front legs, 4 inches just the body alone. As you can see from the photo, I made it quite mad.
I’m not one to kill anything on purpose, so I scooped it up with a shovel and deposited over our back wall into the desert. If you have never seen one in person, let me tell you, that is not an insect, spider, or arachnid. It is more like a lobster!
Leon
El Paso, Texas

Vinegaroon

Dear Leon,
Thanks for writing to us about your personal account of a harrowing encounter with a harmless Vinegaroon.  Your wife is a wise person.  Your photo is a nice documentation of the defensive pose this formidable hunter.

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Is this the kind of scorpian that can kill people?
June 10, 2010
Hello WTB,
This morning I found that one of my sticky traps caught a scorpian. But because it is so small and the light colored one I was concerned after reading through your web site index that it may be the bad kind that can kill people. Can you please verify the speciecs, what I should do with it, and is the sting harmful to my dog and cat as well? Thank you!
Amanda in West TX
Near El Paso

Bark Scorpion Perhaps???

Dear Amanda,
We have always understood that Scorpions with small pedipalps, which Scorpions are able to use as hands, and large tails are the most dangerous.  Your Scorpion fits that description.  We tried to match it so the images on BugGuide, but we don’t feel comfortable beyond the genus level, and even that is dicey.  Our guess is family Buthidae, genus Centruroides, the Bark Scorpions.  Sadly, your photo does not show the shape of the sternum.  According to BugGuide:  “The family Buthidae is easily recognized by the almost triangular sternum. The sternum is located on the underside just before the pectines (combs).“  The coloration of your specimen does not seem consistent with the description on BugGuide for the Striped Bark Scorpion, Centruroides vittatus, which is indicated as:  “two broad stripes down back, with orange bars on each tergite (dorsal plate); hands and fifth metasoma (tail) segment are darker, especially in young and freshly molted specimens; broad stripe on the back of the tail.“  The Striped Bark Scorpion seems the likeliest candidate to us, but we would relish the opinion of an expert in Scorpion identification.

Striped Bark Scorpion maybe???

The defensive posture in your other photo is very interesting.  It seems the Scorpion has retracted its pedipalps to protect its head.  We alluded earlier to Scorpions using their pedipalps as hands.  The mating activity of Scorpions, which we have only read about, but never seen, is called a Pas de Deux or Dance for Two.  The male and female grasp one another by the pedipalps and move around the area as though dancing until the male finds a favorable place to deposit his sperm.  He then guides the female to his gift of life.

Comment
did you free the scorpion?
steiv

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Very fast strange spider
March 18, 2010
Hi i was in the mountains of costa rica a few mounths ago, in a village near Atenas, while there we saw a couple of these spiders. it appeared to have “pinchers” instead of fangs which you would expect on a spider, i have searched all over the internet and cannot find another picture like it can you help?
not sure what you mean here
Costa Rica, Atenas

Tailless Whipscorpion

Dear not sure,
This is a harmless Tailless Whipscorpion.

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Costa Rica Spider
January 30, 2010
This spider was found in a cabin in the jungle in the southeastern corner of Costa Rica, near Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. S/he appeared in the evening around 7 pm, and was just sitting on the wall when I turned on the light. When I used the glass and paper method to move her, I noticed s/he moved kind of like a crab: sideways rather than forwards. S/he was fearful rather than aggressive in response to my trapping efforts. For scale, I left the white light switch panel in the photo, which was probably 5 or 5 1/2″ across. I have never seen anything like this spider and I have been unable to figure out what it might be based on anything I’ve seen online. I later asked a local about the photo and I was told that these spiders are seen when trees are cut down. I would appreciate any information you can share that might help me identify this spider.
Anne Bunner
Costa Rica

Tailless Whipscorpion

Hi Anne,
Though it is an Arachnid, your Tailless Whipscorpion is neither a spider nor a scorpion.  Tailless Whipscorpions, despite having a frightening appearance, are perfectly harmless since they have no venom.  They are shy nocturnal hunters that prey upon cockroaches and other night crawlers.

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