Sahara scorpion
Androctonus australis
— Where the name comes from
Androctonus is “man-killer”, from anḗr, andrós, man, and kteínō, to kill. It is one of the most explicit scientific names in existence, and it is not rhetorical exaggeration: in North Africa this genus causes most deaths from scorpion sting. Australis means “southern”. The name puts together a threat and a direction, and describes nothing else.
— Facts
- Group
- Arachnids · Arachnida
- Order
- Scorpions
- Habitat
- Deserts and dry steppe, under stones and in wall cracks
- Range
- North Africa and the Middle East
- Size
- 10–12 cm
- Diet
- Insects, spiders, other scorpions
- Lifespan
- 5 years
— Characteristics
- 01
The pincers are slender: small pincers mean potent venom, and vice versa.
- 02
It survives a year without food, on a very low metabolism.
- 03
Under ultraviolet light its cuticle glows a fluorescent blue.
— What sets it apart
Among scorpions a rule holds that can be read at a glance: big pincers, weak venom; slender pincers, potent venom. What can crush has no need to kill quickly. This one has slender pincers. Its venom acts on sodium channels and unleashes a storm of the autonomic nervous system that in children can be fatal within hours; an antivenom exists, and mortality where it is available has collapsed. The fluorescence under ultraviolet — common to all scorpions and still without an agreed explanation — is how they are hunted at night in the desert: under a black light they come on like blue bulbs.
