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Sticker of Chinese scorpion
Bug card No. 0267 of 1,500

Chinese scorpion

Mesobuthus martensii
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsScorpions, ticks and friendsDeserts and dry places8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

It likes warm, dry places with few plants. Girls are usually a little bigger than boys.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. It is an arachnid with eight legs, a cousin of the spiders.
Lives in
China, Mongolia and Korea, in warm dry places
Length
6 cm (2.4 in)
Top speed
about 2 km/h (1.2 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Dangerous: look, do not touch

Watch out! Read all about it on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
Like other scorpions, it hunts insects and other small creatures.
For real!Photo of Chinese scorpion
Picture by Já. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Chinese scorpion about 6 cm long (2.4 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.8 seconds

How big is Chinese scorpion compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It grows to about 6 centimetres long and can live 4 to 6 years.

2

In China, people have used it in traditional medicine for many hundreds of years.

3

Sometimes one hides in a parcel and travels all the way to another country by accident.

4

Despite its name, it lives not only in China but also in Mongolia and Korea.

you asked

Most asked questions about Chinese scorpion

?How big is the Chinese scorpion?

It grows to about 6 centimetres long.

?Where does the Chinese scorpion live?

In China, Mongolia and Korea, in warm, dry places with few plants.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Mesobuthus martensii
Named by
Karsch, 1879
Group
Scorpions, ticks and friends
Family
Buthidae
Classification
Arachnida > Scorpiones > Buthidae
Lives on
Asia
Also known as
Manchurian scorpion, Chinese armor-tail scorpion, Chinese golden scorpion

Where the facts come from

  1. Olivierus martensii (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Já. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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