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Sticker of Black-edged bark scorpion
Bug card No. 0457 of 4,939

Black-edged bark scorpion

Centruroides limbatus
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsScorpions, ticks and friendsRainforests and jungles8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The black-edged bark scorpion is a big scorpion from Central America. It is usually yellow with black edges, but some are pale and some are almost blue-black. It hunts among the plants of the forest floor.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. It is an arachnid with eight legs, a cousin of the spiders.
Lives in
Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, in forests and sometimes in houses
Length
11 cm (4.3 in)
up to this long
Top speed
about 2.7 km/h (1.7 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It is a hunter that catches insects and other small animals among the plants.
For real!Photo of Black-edged bark scorpion
Picture by Stevenj. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Black-edged bark scorpion about 11 cm long (4.3 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 1.3 seconds

How big is Black-edged bark scorpion compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is active in the daytime and hides in cracks at night, which is the opposite of many scorpions.

2

Its name limbatus means black-edged, after its dark markings.

3

It sometimes moves into houses where it finds shelter and food.

4

It lives from the seashore up to 1,400 metres high in the mountains.

you asked

Most asked questions about Black-edged bark scorpion

?How big is the black-edged bark scorpion?

It can grow up to 11 centimetres long, which is big for a bark scorpion.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Centruroides limbatus
Named by
Pocock, 1898
Group
Scorpions, ticks and friends
Family
Buthidae
Classification
Arachnida > Scorpiones > Buthidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Centruroides limbatus (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 Stevenj. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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: Rainforests and jungles

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