Hands Down Animals · Printable fact sheet
Scorpion
Scorpiones
Quick facts
| Scientific name | Scorpiones |
|---|---|
| Size | 4 cm to 21 cm depending on species |
| Weight | 1 g to 30 g |
| Lifespan | 3 to 8 years, but can exceed 20 years for some species |
| Diet | Primarily insects, spiders, and other arthropods; larger species may eat small lizards or mammals. |
| Habitat | Deserts, Savannas, Tropical rainforests |
| Where it lives | Sonoran Desert, Sahara Desert, Arabian Desert, Amazon Rainforest |
| IUCN status | Least Concern (most species); some localized threats |
| Population | Unknown; believed to be in the tens of millions globally |
| Top speed | 12 km/h |
| Family | Varies (includes Buthidae, Scorpionidae, Hemiscorpiidae and others) |
About the scorpion
Scorpions are arachnids, relatives of spiders, with eight legs, a pair of pincers and a tail ending in a venomous sting, and the roughly 2,500 species live on every continent except Antarctica, from deserts to rainforests. They glow blue-green under ultraviolet light, can slow their metabolism to survive a year without food, and give birth to live young that ride on the mother's back. Only around 25 species have venom dangerous to people; the emperor scorpion of West Africa, up to 20 centimetres long, is one of the largest and a common pet.
Five things to know
- All scorpions are venomous, but less than 30 species are dangerous to humans.
- Scorpions glow blue-green under ultraviolet light due to substances in their exoskeleton.
- Some scorpions can live more than 20 years, especially in captivity.
- Their pincers are used to grasp prey, while the tail delivers venom.
- Scorpions have been on Earth for over 430 million years, making them ancient arachnids.
Homeschool unit: Animals homeschool guide — Habitats, adaptations and food chains as a graded unit, with the scorpion as one of its worked examples.