Description: Straw-colored or tan. Adults: 2-2 3/4" in length including tail. They are in the same family as spiders (Arachnida) so have 8 legs. Also 8 eyes but have very poor vision and can only detect light and dark.

Diet: Insects, spiders and other tiny prey. Small prey is simply torn apart by the pinchers. Larger prey is stung. The venom, a neuro-toxin, is held in a gland at the tip of the tail and is injected through its stinger to kill prey by affecting the central nervous system.

Then it holds its food with its pinchers and uses digestive juices to break the tissue down. With the help of another set of small pinchers in the mouth called chelicerae, it chews and sucks the liquefied food into the digestive tract with the pumping action of the pharynx.

Range: Southern and Southwestern U.S. and Mexico

Habitat: Usually lives in dark areas, in cracks or under rocks during the day, and roams and hunts at night.

Life Span: Full-grown by 5 years. Lives 5-9 years. Grows by occasionally molting out of its hard exoskeleton. The process is done by turning on its back, cracking open and slipping out of the exoskeleton, then puffing up and hardening again. Because it is soft and has expended so much energy, it is extremely vulnerable during the molting process.

Status: Common.

Locomotion: They extend their pincers when they walk. Tail can be down and straight out or curled over back, but is usually held curled to the side of the body. Good climbers, but cannot climb glass.

Socialization: Solitary, but this is the only scorpion that can be kept with other scorpions since it is not especially territorial or aggressive to others.

Breeding/Reproduction: Very unique courtship. The male holds the female's pincers and "dances" with her, turning round and round for up to several hours. Then he deposits his sperm on the ground and pulls her over it and she takes it up in the sexual opening on the underside of her abdomen. Approximately 30 eggs develop inside the mother's body over several months and break during "birth", releasing fully developed offspring. They ride on the female's back for 7-10 days before their first molt when they disperse.

Nifty Facts: Scorpions glow a greenish-yellow color under fluorescent black lights.

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