10 Surprising Emperor Scorpion Facts

Big pincers, a raised tail, and a name like "emperor" make this one of the more intimidating-looking pets in the hobby. Almost none of that reputation holds up once you look at the actual animal.

1. Their sting feels about like a bee sting. Despite the intimidating pincers, emperor scorpion venom is mild, most people compare a sting to a bee or wasp sting: sharp, localized pain and some swelling, rarely anything more serious.

2. They rely on brute force more than venom. Their oversized pincers do most of the work, tearing prey apart, and the sting is more of a backup than a primary weapon. In the wild a large share of that prey is termites.

3. They glow under UV light. Like most scorpions, their exoskeleton fluoresces a vivid blue-green under ultraviolet or black light, a trait scientists still don't fully understand the purpose of, and it happens under natural UV moonlight too.

4. They're one of the largest scorpion species in the world. Adults can reach 6 to 8 inches long, making them one of the biggest and heaviest scorpions kept as pets.

5. Mothers carry their young on their backs. Courtship starts with the male gripping the female by her pincers, and it can include a sting delivered to her and a touching of mouthparts sometimes called kissing. Pregnancy then lasts about nine months on average, and a female gives live birth to a litter of around 10 to 12. After that, baby emperor scorpions (called scorplings) climb onto the mother's back and ride there until their first molt, completely dependent on her for protection.

6. They're ambush predators that dig for a living. Emperor scorpions are fossorial, spending much of their time in burrows under leaf litter, forest debris and stream banks, emerging mostly at night to hunt. They read the ground through pectines, a pair of comb-like sensory organs on the underside behind the legs that sense the texture of the terrain.

7. They outlive most invertebrates. Published ranges run from 4 to 9 years, with 5 to 8 typical in captivity, which is a long life for an invertebrate this size.

8. Despite the pincers, they're actually one of the calmer scorpion species. Their combination of low venom potency and generally docile temperament is exactly why they're one of the most commonly kept pet scorpions.

9. They're native to the tropical forests of West Africa, from Sierra Leone through Ghana, Togo and Nigeria to the Congo region, where high humidity and warm, stable temperatures are part of daily life. The pet trade takes enough of them that the species is listed on CITES Appendix II, which limits international trade so it does not become a threat.

10. Their exoskeleton doesn't grow, so a young scorpion has to shed it entirely to get bigger, roughly five to seven times on the way to adulthood and then never again once it matures. A scorpion is at its most vulnerable in the hours right after shedding its old shell.

Scorpions aren't the only ones keeping that secret, either. Researchers only discovered in 2020 that platypus fur glows the same blue-green under UV light, and nobody is certain why in that case either.

Which fact surprised you the most? Let me know in the comments.

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