Emperor scorpion
Pandinus imperator
— Where the name comes from
Scorpion comes from the Greek skorpíos, perhaps from the root *(s)ker-, “to cut”. Imperator, Latin, for the bulk: it is among the largest living scorpions. The constellation of Scorpius has borne the same name for at least four thousand years, from the Babylonians onwards.
— Facts
- Group
- Arachnids · Arachnida
- Order
- Scorpions
- Habitat
- Rainforest and humid savannah
- Range
- West Africa
- Size
- 15–20 cm
- Diet
- Carnivore — insects, small vertebrates
- Lifespan
- 6–8 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It prefers to crush prey with its pincers rather than sting it.
- 02
The venom is mild to humans.
- 03
The mother carries her young on her back until their first moult.
— What sets it apart
Under ultraviolet light the scorpion glows an intense blue, from molecules in the cuticle. Nobody is certain what it is for: it may serve the scorpion itself as a way of measuring moonlight — the whole body becoming a photoreceptor — and deciding whether the night is too bright to go hunting. The fluorescence appears only after the first moult, and is so stable that it persists in fossil specimens.
