Know Your Enemy
Accurate identification of pests is as important as choosing the best preventive pest management available on the market today. Preventive Pest Control has compiled a list of most common pests to help you identify the problem.
Scorpionidae
Characteristics
The family Scorpionidae has 18 genera and 285 species. They are very large scorpions that can reach the length of 6 to 8 inch that can gain the weight of up to 32 grams per mass. Their large size also paves the way for their being strong and powerful. Their pentagonal sternum, broad pedipalps, and chelae are strong and sturdy.
Habitat
They mostly live in Africa, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, and North America. While they mostly live almost around the world, they prefer to stay in humid forests, rainforests, and savannas. Other species, however, live in drier environments.
Behavior
The family Scorpionidae are good survivalists. They can often be found in areas where other animals may have difficulty in surviving. They can physically adapt to their environment and take advantage of their nocturnal capabilities. Since most of their prey are also active at night, they also take advantage of this, which allows them to hunt easier.
Food
The family Scorpionidae are nocturnal arachnids that feeds on different types of invertebrates. They will usually look for their prey at night when most of their prey are also busy searching for food. They will search for them under the bark of trees and on trees, under stones, and more. With the use of its claws or pincers, the scorpion will grab its prey and use its tail to strike and paralyze or kill their victim with their venom. Once the prey is dead, the scorpion will tear their victim apart and consume the life juices of their victim. While they can eat on a variety of insects, and even on other scorpions, the Scorpionidae can consume on other vertebrates, such as rodents, small lizards and snakes.
Life Cycle
Scorpions can live for almost 25 years if they are in captivity, and are well taken care of by their owners. In their natural habitat, this family can live from 2 to 10 years. Their life cycle starts with the male and the female performing a mating dance. The male will grasp the palps of the female and will maneuver her to get his spermataphore. The process of the mating dance is meticulous, long, and cautious. The female will then get the spermataphoreand place it in her reproductive opening. Once the process is done, the male will run away so that the female cannot consume him.
It takes months before the female gives birth to live young. She will give birth to each scorpion one at a time. The female’s responsibility is to take care of the young scorpions until their first molt. After the first molt, the scorplings will leave their mother. It will take at least 7 molts before this scorpion becomes an adult. Once they become adults, the male will search for a possible female to mate, and the process will start once again.
Other Information and Tips
They make as good pets because this family is made of large scorpions. And, even though they are big, they are not dangerous. They may still be venomous, but their venom is not considered lethal to people.
Photo by Chris huh (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons / resized from original
