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Sticker of Edward's bark scorpion
Bug card No. 1511 of 4,939

Edward's bark scorpion

Centruroides edwardsii
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsScorpions, ticks and friendsHouses and farms8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

Edward's bark scorpion is a big reddish brown scorpion with yellow legs. It often lives close to people, even inside houses.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. It is an arachnid with eight legs, a cousin of the spiders.
Lives in
From Mexico through Central America to Colombia, often in and around houses
Length
6 to 10 cm (2.4 to 4.1 in)
Top speed
about 2.6 km/h (1.6 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Dangerous: look, do not touch
What does it eat?
It mostly eats insects. Now and then it even catches small lizards or a little snake.
For real!Photo of Edward's bark scorpion
Picture by Cabanillas Lopez Jesus Miguel. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Edward's bark scorpion about 10 cm long (4.1 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 3 toy building bricks in a rowabout as long as your handcould run across a dinner table in 1.4 seconds

How big is Edward's bark scorpion compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The males are bigger than the females.

2

It lives in dry forests, deserts and rainforests, from the beach up to about 1,700 metres high.

3

It has also moved to Cuba and to Senegal in Africa.

you asked

Most asked questions about Edward's bark scorpion

?How big is Edward's bark scorpion?

Grown-ups are about 6 to 10 centimetres long, about as long as a grown-up's finger.

?Where does Edward's bark scorpion live?

From Mexico through Central America to Colombia, often in towns and houses.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Centruroides edwardsii
Group
Scorpions, ticks and friends
Family
Buthidae
Classification
Arachnida > Scorpiones > Buthidae
Lives on
North America, South America, Africa

Where the facts come from

  1. Centruroides edwardsii (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 Cabanillas Lopez Jesus Miguel. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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More from the same group: Scorpions, ticks and friends

Also at home here: Houses and farms

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