#Tailless whip spider

[roxistic]

[platycryptus]

My florida amblypygid (Phrynus marginemaculatus) that I’ve had since early 2021 has been alone since he mated with a female owned by my friend a few months ago, so I collected a female (on the right) from the same barrier island where he was originally found and introduced them:

Phrynus are territorial and their initial reaction to encountering a potential mate can appear aggressive, threatening and wrestling each other with their raptorial pedipalps, but I believe the quick vibrating movements of their whips in this video taken minutes after introduction indicate mating interest or other non-aggressive communication. The next day they were sitting side by side in the same crevice.

It’s common to see mating pairs of amblypygids in the family Phrynidae coexisting closely in the wild, sometimes with groups of offspring present alongside them. Some people recommend against keeping captive amblypygids together due to the risk of cannibalism, but in at least some species including marginemaculatus mating pairs seem able to live together long-term with little risk, though things can anecdotally get more dicey when the female lays eggs. Amblypygid offspring also remain near their mother for a long period of time and groups of P. marginemaculatus siblings coexist peacefully until they reach sexual maturity and become more territorial.

[thewickedweinee]

Top 10 bugs of 2023

[theghostofwilburtheworm]

ILY TAILLESS WHIP SCORPION ILY FOREVER!!!!

👆MOST BEAUTIFULL AND LOVELY LAD IN EXISTENCE!!

[sagasolejma]

HEY EVERYONE LISTEN UP

One of my good friends @shequotesherself wrote this really amazing poem about my tailless whip scorpion Solejma and the unrequited love I feel for her, it literally brought me to tears, and I really need y'all to read it:

"You are my sunshine who prefers the moon

Your home's a shrine, though you know not to whom

Your food's a gift that need not be repaid,

Though you wouldn't think to anyway

Each day my thoughts of you are writ in bold

Across my arms, my blood, my heart and soul

You see these words each time my hand comes close

And yet unversed, you cannot read my prose

You are my sunshine who prefers the moon

The major lift of my favorite tune

Mon raison d'être et ma chère chèrie

It's such a shame, I think, you cannot see

With your eight eyes or feel with your eight legs

How hard my heart which beats for you does beg

Not for a service or a word of thanks

But just for you to know how much I

Love and care and dream at night

For you, for you to be alright"

Words cannot describe how much I love this poem. It puts so many of my feelings around my little critter into words, in ways that I never could or would be able to. She's amazing❤️

@shequotesherself also has a Wattpad collection of her other poems that are also really, really, really good, and she's currently working on writing a book of poems so she would greatly appreciate all the amount of feedback she can get!

Here's the link to her wattpad

I genuinely implore you to go and read some of her other works like "Your Love Is Like Acid" or "To Whom It May Concern".

If you could reblog this to spread the word or even better, reblog some of her posts, I would be extremely grateful to you!

I promise you won't be disappointed!

[insectomoe]

Not the best picture, but I just think it's neat

[pile-of-bugs]

Today's bug: Tailless whip scorpion!

Sorry I haven't been active for so long.. anyways I got a new pet today - this female tailless whip scorpion (likely Phrynus whitei), so I'll tell you about them!

Tailless whip scorpions are arachnids in the Order Amblypygi (am-BLIP-idge-eye) and they're quite ancient! They even look a bit prehistoric, I think. There's about 150 species of tailless whip scorpion.

Adapted for crawling around dark forests and cave walls, these arthropods are nearly blind - their simple eyes giving them only vague information, like the level of surrounding light. That's where their loooong 2nd pair of legs come in!

(image source: Wikimedia)

See those long "whips" from which they get their name? Those are for feeling their surroundings. When active, they'll be constantly moving around them around to sense their environment. The whips are very fragile and can break easily, but can be regrown every molt!

(image source: Frank Deschandol on iNaturalist)

Tailless whip scorpions are NOT scorpions, nor are they spiders. And those terrifying front claws aren't legs either - they're heavily modified mouthparts, pedipalps to be precise. Speaking of scorpions, their grabby claws are also their pedipalps! In spiders, these are those cute little appendages right next to the chelicerae (the things that have the fangs).

Unlike both scorpions and spiders, however, a tailless whip scorpion cannot bite or sting. They're almost totally harmless! Practically the posterchild for "don't judge a book by its cover," these are some of the friendliest arachnids in the world. You have to seriously to make one angry (which is basically abuse, so don't do that), and even then they'll only try smacking you with their thorny pedipalps, never biting with their fangs.

About the only truly scary part of handling them (once you get past their appearance) is their speed. These things normally move very slowly (on account of the "blind and has to touch everything" thing), but if startled, they'll bolt in the opposite direction with incredible speed! They really, really would rather not confront you at all. I cannot emphasize enough how completely NOT dangerous these arachnids are, despite their look!

(image source: Jonathan's Jungle Roadshow)

Btw, did you know the mommas make great parents? Like many other large arachnids, the mothers will take their young with them until they're large enough to hunt on their own. They hatch from an egg pouch carried on the underside of the abdomen, which looks absolutely alien - in the source for the above image, you can find pictures of the whole process.

You may have seen this meme ^ Their pedipalps, usually folded up, can also unfold to catch prey or defend themselves (in the original video for this pic, the owner is provoking this reaction - something I don't condone, even if it showcases their grab ability very well). Tailless whip scorpions are carnivores, and the prey they catch are usually small insects like crickets or flies.

Tailless whip scorpions are found in almost every warm, tropical part of the world - Central/South America, Africa, Asia, and even some islands like the Phillipines!

Here's my t.w.s.' habitat. They're very easy pets to take care of! Just make sure you have a habitat that favors verticality - they need to be able to climb to feel at home! Cork board is best, either just on the back, or 2-3 sides of the enclosure. Humidity is a must, so have the base be filled with cocofiber, then add water and perhaps a heating pad set on low to maintain moisture. Moss helps too! All that's left is to feed them - just once or twice a month is enough.

The light on my display is too hot, and heats up the plastic really quickly, so I only use it briefly to find and observe her. They don't actually need light since they're used to being in the dark!

I hope you liked these facts on tailless whip scorpions. If you know more facts, lmk or just add it to the post! I'm still learning things myself - like for example, you can tell males/females apart by the size of their pedipalps (the males have reaaaally long pedipalps, like the one in that meme, the females have much shorter ones).

[bumblechub]

thought process: tailless whip scorpions are cool ➡️ look at their little grabby hands ➡️ what do they even do with their hands ➡️ do they fight? ➡️ do they have a secret alien sign language? ➡️ do they do RITUALS and cast SPELLS

[sleepingracoon]

Spidersona art dump bc idk where to put her

[liebelesbe]

very quick tailless whip scorpion doodle bc I'm love them

[cedararachne]

Damon medius with noms

[deepsea-worm]

Could I get a tattoo made of your whip scorpion art?

That would be alright!

[cleaverqueer]

I have always wanted one of these as a pet

[gthostz]

hellow would you care to share a list of the inverts you keep 👁️👁️

pill bugs 💊, spider 🕷️, and the thing that sits at the end of my bed playing the eerie bagpipes every morning

[sam-dugesian]

Go get 'em, Amblypygi !

Get that silly trend-following shrew fellow.