Pugnacious burrowing scorpion
Opistophthalmus pugnax
Name means: “ready to fight”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsScorpions, ticks and friendsDeserts and dry places8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin
The pugnacious burrowing scorpion is a muddy brown scorpion from South Africa. It digs a burrow under a rock and waits there. Its name sounds like it loves to fight, but it is actually quite calm.
Fun fact: this one is not an insect. It is an arachnid with eight legs, a cousin of the spiders.
Lives in
South Africa, on rocky hills and ridges
Length
7 cm (2.8 in)
What does it eat?
It hunts insects and other small animals and takes them back to its burrow to eat.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🧱as long as 2 toy building bricks in a row🍽️could run across a dinner table in 1.6 seconds
How big is Pugnacious burrowing scorpion compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Pugnacious burrowing scorpion about 2.2 km/h (1.4 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its burrow is shaped like a fan and has a wider room where it rests or eats its food.
2
It digs under rocks and other things lying on the ground.
3
Despite its fighting name, it is not very aggressive and almost never comes into houses.
4
A mother can give birth to up to 25 babies at once.
you asked
Most asked questions about Pugnacious burrowing scorpion
?How big is the pugnacious burrowing scorpion?
It grows up to about 7 centimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Opistophthalmus pugnax
- Group
- Scorpions, ticks and friends
- Family
- Scorpionidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Scorpiones > Scorpionidae
- Lives on
- Africa
Where the facts come from
- Opistophthalmus pugnax (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 Ryanvanhuyssteen. 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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