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.
Diplocentridae
Characteristics
The family Diplocentridae is closely related to the family Scorpionidae, however, their family and species is much larger than the Scorpionidae. Diplocentridae has 8 genera and 76 species of scorpions. The adult scorpion is large with approximately 2 to 3 3/20 inch in length depending on the species. They are brownish orange to pale brown, or dark brown to orange,. This family can easily be recognized by their tough, blunt, subconical subaculear tubercle, and powerful spinform setae.
Habitat
This family is common in Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. They can also be found in Central America, Caribbean, and Asia. A large portion of these species prefers to live in oak forests where they will stay underground rocks.
Behavior
Although scorpions do not normally burrow, the family Diplocentridae are great climbers. They can easily hunt for their prey and paralyze it with the use of their venom. Scorpions are great survivalists. They know how to control their metabolism so that they can survive without food and water. They can survive without water since their prey provides them with some of the water content they need. They are nocturnal and will stay hidden to avoid the heat.
Food
Scorpions eat insects, lizards, rodents, grasshoppers, mealworms, and other food that can be prey. When food is scarce, this arachnid can survive by eating even just a single insect. Scorpions can go without food for six months to a year.
Life Cycle
In an outdoor environment, a scorpion can become mature after 1 to 5 years. After that, they will search for their mate to start the reproduction cycle. Mating usually occurs with the male searching for a mate of the same species. Once he finds the right female, he will start dancing and place his spermataphore while the female accepts it. The eggs will be carried for several months inside the female and will give birth one at a time to live young. The mother will mostly be responsible for caring and protection of her young, or the demise of them. But, once the scorplings are able to live their mother’s back after their first molt, they will finally go on their way and search for their own prey. The scorpling will go through six to seven molts before they become adults.
Other Information and Tips
The family Diplocentridae are also known to be in captivity and are not known to pose a threat to people.
Photo by Hectonichus (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons / resized from original
