The Tailless Whipscorpion

Hey guys! I promised you bugs a few days ago...I BRING YOU BUGS!

Today's bug entry is on a little nippy piece of nightmare fuel called the tailless whip scorpion, or sometimes called the whip spider. Now I know what you are thinking. "Did you just name something that gets called a spider AND a scorpion?????" I bet you can't even begin to imagine the sheer evilness of this creatures existence! Does it have the tail of a scorpion and the fangs and silk of a spider??? It couldn't! It's name says it's tailless! But does it carry a whip around? Lord save us all!! This is where nature steps in and tells us to chill. I can thankfully say that no such creature exists. The tailless whip scorpion, I swear, must have been given its name by entomologists as a practical joke. Because the only thing this creature has in common with a spider and a scorpion is 8 legs. That's right, no stinging tail, no fangs, no spinnerets and no whips included.

These guys belong to the Arachnid class, same as Spiders and scorpions. But they are a completely separate family to spiders and scorpions. These guys are generally a mottled grey colour to blend in with the ground. They have 4 pairs of long, thin, spiny legs and two large pincers with which they grab and eat prey with. Speaking of prey. They will eat any insect they can get their pincers on. Mainly crickets. Two things which they excel at are hiding and moving really really quickly. Their long legs sort of defy physics the way they are able to move so quickly. When they move they keep their body flat on the ground and use their legs so sort of glide across the ground. Generally they don't have to move because they spend their time living under a rock. And by that I don't mean they are behind in the news and social norms of society either. Their size ranges from not too terrifyingly small and oh-god-kill-it-with-fire large. (Those are technical terms) So basically they range from between 2 cm to about 6 cm. There are some that get larger too, but only rarely.

Now I'm sure you must be curious at to what these buggers look like considering the fact that I gave them an interesting description of nightmare fuel worthy. Well don't worry! All your fears shall soon be realised! You'll notice that earlier in my blog post I said that these things do not have whips. Well I may have lied. While not typical whips you and I think of, these guys do have a pair of whip like legs. Why? I don't actually know, maybe nature just wanted to creep the hell out of us.

Spoiler: Pictures

It really is an ugly little monster. I love it!


Yes okay? I put it on my face, I just had to.

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and I hope it doesn't give you nightmares. Sweet dreams

-Simon out!