I have lived in Arizona 19 years, 6 of them at D:F Ranch, and this is the FIRST tailless whipscorpion I have ever seen. You would think that given the amount of time I spend outside at night working to avoid summer heat (as I was doing this evening) that I would have stumbled across one of these by now, but tonight was a first. Oddly, this pleases me greatly, even as I am sure that some of my friends and readers will react with fear or disgust to this critter. There’s just something really gratifying about finally finding an animal or plant which you know exists in your region, but which has eluded you for so many years.
Detail of the carapace of the amblypygid and the folded jaws.
Tailless whipscorpions are arachnids, related to spiders and true scorpions. They have 8 legs, but only use 6 of them to walk, using the greatly elongated front pair in place of antennae, which they wave about to detect both prey and threats. These long, thin antennae-legs span several times the length of the body and are exquisitely sensitive – the slightest vibration or puff of air sends the whipscorpion darting off if it feels threatened.
The full span of the two “antennae” which are actually thin, elongated legs.
Despite their fearsome appearance, these arthropods (also called amblypygids, for their biological order Amblypygidae) are entirely harmless to humans. They are not venomous and despite the large chelicerae (the “jaws”) they catch their prey with they rarely bite humans, and aren’t venomous regardless even if they do. Try catching one first though! These suckers can move fast when frightened, and clearly I am the much larger potential threat to them than they are to me, so they run away first.
My fingers shown for scale. The body itself is maybe a bit over a half inch wide, while the legs span several inches. This one isn’t all that large actually, since tropical species can easily span across a person’s face. And yes, there are people in videos online who allow this….
I have not yet seen a vinegaroon either, so maybe that will show up next. Those are a related order of arachnids that have a long “tail” that squirts acetic acid, aka vinegar, as a self-defense mechanism. That explains why these are called “tailless”, since these don’t squirt acid in your face, not that vinegaroons are actually dangerous to humans either. Anyway, when I finally see one, assuming they do live here, I will make sure to document it! 🙂
My hand for size comparison again. Were this a vinegaroon, it would have a long slender “tail” projecting off of the abdomen, and the chelicerae would be shaped a bit differently as well, more like lobster claws than folded shears.\
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I am in Havasu and have been lucky enough to have rescued 4 a few years back.. One on he garage floor.. one on the patio, on in my bathroom and one on th outside of my house just a few inches from a large black widow..I carefully reocated to widow to make sure the tailless whip scorpion was safe.. i did do a lot of pics…
Very interesting. You’d think that I would surely have seen more than one in the past 25 years I’ve lived here, but the one I featured in this several-year-old article to this day still remains by itself in that column for me. Thanks for taking care of yours. 🙂