I knew you were trouble when you walked in…

Everyone say hello to the Taylor Swift Scorpion! 👋

Wait. Hang on. That’s not right. 

Tailless Whip Scorpion – I always stuff that one up…

People typically think of spiders when they hear ‘arachnid’, but arachnid is a term that covers spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks and harvestmen, as well as our good friend featured here. 

Also referred to as Whip Spiders, Tailless Whip Scorpions are arachnids, but they’re actually neither spiders nor scorpions. They’re their own thing entirely. 

There was a blank space to be filled in the arachnid world and then the taxonomic scientists were like, “I’ll write your name.” And that name was amblypygi, meaning ‘blunt tail’.

There are 155 species of amblypygid worldwide. They’re found in pretty much every tropical environment, and they can be HUGE. One species has been recorded with a whopping 70cm legspan – that’s longer than the average human arm!

Tailless Whip Scorpions really wanted to evolve stingers like real scorpions, or silk glands like spiders. Unfortunately however, after separating from both groups hundreds of millions of years ago, the spiders and the scorpions were both like, “Sorry, we are never ever getting back together.”

While they look utterly terrifying, Tailless Whip Scorpions are completely harmless. They literally could not hurt you if they tried (apart from potentially poking you with their prominent pedipalps). So if you happen to look down and find one crawling on you, feel free to stop and admire its ridiculously dangly legs. 

Alternatively, if you’re still creeped out by it, I guess you could, uhhh… shake it off.

Okay, I spent way too much time listening to Taylor Swift in order to put together all of the references above – there was four, did you get them all?

Hopefully you learned something about the Taylor Swift Scorpion Tailless Whip Scorpion along the way. Otherwise I tortured myself for nothing.

Anyway, please enjoy the rest of my Tailless Whip Scorpion facts, which will remain entirely Taylor Swift-free.

Like almost all arachnids, amblypygids have eight legs, but interestingly, they only use six for walking. The front two legs have evolved into long feelers, similar to antennae, which they use to sense their surrounding environment. In many species, these front legs can resemble whips, hence the name whip scorpion.

As with spiders and a number of other arachnids, amblypygids also have pedipalps – a pair of appendages at the front of the face. However, unlike spiders, which use their pedipalps as sensory organs, Tailless Whip Scorpions employ their pedipalps while hunting. Typically much larger than those of other arachnids, amblypygid pedipalps are used in order to capture and retain prey.

Tailless Whip Scorpions are wildly impressive creatures to encounter in the field, and these photos really don’t convey their ridiculous size. I reckon the biggest one we saw could easily have given me a hug by wrapping its legs all the way around my head if it had wanted to. It didn’t, unfortunately. I can only assume it wasn’t a hugger.

Wow. Look at that. I made it through the rest of the information without any Taylor Swift jokes. If you’re not a fan of her, I’m sorry about the first half of this post. I certainly hope there’s no bad blood.

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Tailless Whip Scorpion/Taylor Swift Scorpion (Heterophrynus elaphus), Los Amigos Biological Station, Madre de Dios, Peru