Deathstalker

Leiurus quinquestriatus

Name means: “its scientific name means five-striped smooth tail”

The deathstalker is a pale yellow scorpion that lives in hot deserts.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. It is an arachnid with eight legs, a cousin of the spiders.

Lives in

North Africa and the Middle East to Central Asia and western India, in deserts and dry scrubland

Length

3 to 7.7 cm (1.2 to 3 in)

Top speed

about 3 km/h (1.9 mph)

On foot, estimate

Can it hurt you?

Dangerous: look, do not touch

What does it eat?

Like all scorpions it is a hunter.

How big is it?

as long as 2.5 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.2 seconds

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

Deathstalker about 3 km/h (1.9 mph)

A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)

A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)

A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)

cool stuff

Its tail is long and smooth, and its name means five-striped smooth tail.

In many countries you are not allowed to keep one as a pet.

you asked

?How big is a deathstalker?

It is 30 to 77 millimetres long, on average about 6 centimetres.

?Where do deathstalkers live?

In deserts and dry lands from North Africa through the Middle East to Central Asia and India.

Scientific name: Leiurus quinquestriatus
Group: Scorpions, ticks and friends
Family: Buthidae
Classification: Arachnida > Scorpiones > Buthidae
Lives on: Africa, Asia
Also known as: Palestine yellow scorpion, Omdurman scorpion, Naqab desert scorpion

Deathstalker (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
Picture by SuperJew. 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.