The scientific name of a tailless whipscorpion (who are otherwise known as whip spiders)
is Amblypygid which means “blunt rump.” While this is an appropriate description of this animal’s
rather short rear end, the more common names can be a bit confusing for more than one reason.
First of all, tailless whipscorpions are not scorpions nor are they spiders;
although they do kind of look like some super combination of the two,
they are in a group all their own. Secondly, there are other arthropods commonly called
“whip scorpions” and “vinegaroons.” These look similar to tailless whipscorpions but as the
name may imply those bugs have a tail and we’ll be covering them in a future episode.
There are more than 150 identified species of tailless whipscorpions and they tend to
live in tropical and sub-tropical climates throughout the world. They’re nocturnal and
take to hiding in dark places during the day such as under rocks, in rotting logs and inside caves.
At night they come out to hunt. They hunt by feeling their way along the ground using their
incredibly long, whip-like front legs. This is from where their common name is derived. They’ll
scuttle in a sideways motion like a crab using a keen sense of direction to find their way around.
When they do stumble across prey they will catch it using their pedipalps or the two spine covered
appendages at the front of their body. While the end of these don’t form into pinchers like those
of a scorpion they’re still highly effective in holding prey. While the pedipalps hold the prey
in place, the tailless whipscorpion will eat the prey using its pincher-like mouth which is
called a chelicerae. Their prey are usually other insects including crickets, spiders,
roaches, millipedes and even katydids which is an animal we’ve discussed in a prior episode.
They have flat bodies, four legs and eight eyes. As mentioned earlier, the first set of a tailless
whipscorpion’s legs are used for sensing their surroundings and are way longer than the other
legs and their body as a whole. While on average their bodies will only be 5cm long, their sensory
legs can reach up to 25cm! That’s a lot of leg! They’re usually neutrally colored appearing
mostly mottled grey, brown or black, with some sporting yellow bands around their legs - but,
after they molt, or shed their hard exoskeleton - they will appear white and even green in color.
They’re vulnerable directly after they’ve molted. In fact, baby tailless whipscorpions will actually
ride on their mother’s back until after at least their second molt in life and if they fall off
Mom before then, they’ll perish. Something cool about the tailless whipscorpion’s molting habits,
though, are that they will keep molting throughout their entire lives. Most other arachnids stop once
they reach adulthood but the tailless whipscorpion just keeps right on going meaning they keep
growing throughout their whole lifetime. I’m pretty sure you could make a pretty legit movie
about an immortal tailless whipscorpion. Actually, speaking of movies... In the Harry Potter series,
during the Goblet of Fire, Professor Moody uses a tailless whipscorpion in
a demonstration of the three unforgivable curses. He explains that one bite from the
creature is lethal. Seems the professor has his facts backwards, though, since they’re actually
pretty harmless to humans not even possessing venom or stingers. Anyway, back to the facts!
Females will carry the babies until they’re strong enough to be on their own,
though it’s been observed in some species that they maintain a bond for some time even after
separating by forming into familial groups and stroking each other with their sensory legs.
When the young are mature enough to have their own babies the males with court the females by rubbing
them with those long front legs. He’ll deposit a sperm sac and gently guide the female over it with
his pedipalps - gently being the key word here! When she’s ready to lay her upwards of 60 eggs,
she’ll actually deposit them into an egg sac and carry that with her until they hatch after about 3
months, at which point you know what happens! Ahh, the circle of life. They typically live 2-3 years.
They’re pretty quick and able to find hiding places where most enemies would be unable to
follow thanks to their flatten bodies so most probably live to see that age;
though, if they are caught off guard, they’ll be eaten by scorpions, spiders and reptiles.
Some people even keep tailless whipscorpions as pets.
I’m not sure how Chester would feel about having an arachnid friend...
For more information on tailless whipscorpions be sure to check out the links below.
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