I’ve been on the lookout for one for ages, but tonight I finally bumped into one.
I havn’t seen any decent pictures of “live” ones.
I saw this one casually crossing the street - his name is Malcolm.
When it saw me get near it raised it’s claws and tail thingy - obviously didn’t want to have his picture taken.
I took these two shots before it scuttled off into a hole:
They’re not poisonous, but if you poke them with a stick they usually spray an unpleasant amonia-like substance at your face.
I used to be pretty scared of scorpions until I discovered centipedes.
I love all the bugs you can find in Taiwan - just thought I’d share this with you.
Ew. Used to see enormous scorpions in Thailand, which were (I was told) very poisonous. Not seen these in Taiwan. Wouldn’t want them in my house, but they are kind of cool looking. How big are they?
I have never seen a giant centipede. It seems they are more common in the north. The scorpions, however, are quite common in Kenting. Cool bugs. Easy to spot them at night with a flashlight. The ones I’ve seen were all about 2 inches long, not including the tail and claws. About the size of a huge flying cockroach.
bobepine, there are usually loads up between the radar base and the lighthouse around the corner from Kenting on the cliffs there. The place stinks in the evening because all the stray dogs start playing with them.
I’ve never seen them live either, but I bought a double-live album of theirs in France in 1987 and listened to it all the way from Bordeaux to Carnac. “Big Shitty Nights! You keep me burningk!”
[quote=“Lord Lucan”]I’ve never seen them live either, but I bought a double-live album of theirs in France in 1987 and listened to it all the way from Bordeaux to Carnac. “Big Shitty Nights! You keep me burningk!”
Zehr gut.[/quote] erm… Scorpions, THE INSECT! :loco:
I’ve been to the lighthouse area in Kending, but I haven’t seen them there. I think they hide during the day. I’m under the impression that they are nocturnal. I only ever saw them at night. Mostly at the same campsite.
We went on a hike on the back of Yang ming Shan two weeks ago. Saw a giant centipede running across the path with a small lizard in its jaws. We blocked its path with a stick and watched it eat the lizard’s head.
More footnotes from the picky department:
Not insects, but chelicerates. Spiders are also chelicerates.
(Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Arthropoda, Class: Anomocardia, Order: Schizoramia)
Insects belong to order Uniramia.
One of my professors always liked to share an anecdote about scorpion evolution with his invertebrate paleontology students. They were the first land animal, ahead of the crossopterygeans (ancestor of land vertebrates) by 100 million years! They had a unique evolutionary opportunity,
and, (luckily for us) they blew it!
Of course, scorpions are related to a really scary extinct beastie called a Eurypterid, aka the Sea scorpion.
The largest specimen ever found is from Scotland, and measures a little over six feet in length.
The Eurypterid is also the state fossil of New York, and large numbers of them are quarried commercially
from a location near Herkimer. Eurypterus remipes, the NYS fossil, is a much more agreeable-looking form, without the two fully-formed chelicera which form the claws on modern scorpions and on the horror in the picture below.
[quote=“belgian pie”]FYI, even London has its scorpions and so has Belgium …
BTW, you can spot them at night using UV black lights …
[/quote]
I saw a tv show about that (where I get all my scientific knowledge from). There are colonies of scorpions which live in damp walls near the docks in London. They jumped off boats. They do not move much from their breeding ground so bunches of them all live on the same wall. They showed them using UV light. Pretty cool.
[quote]Because I am just picky like that…
poisonous means that you eat it and it makes you ill.
venomous means it bites or stings you and it makes you ill.
[/quote]
He…He…I’m sure if I had eaten it I would have been ill. So we don’t get venomous mushrooms then?
erm… Scorpions, THE INSECT! :loco:
