Giant vinegaroon
The giant vinegaroon looks a bit like a scorpion with a long thin whip for a tail. It has big claws at the front and two extra long feeler legs. When it is scared, it sprays a mist that smells just like vinegar.
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Fun facts
Its spray is mostly acetic acid, the same stuff that makes vinegar sour.
It has eight eyes, but they are very weak, so it finds its way by feeling with its long front legs and tail.
The mother takes care of about 40 babies and feeds them while they are little.
It can live for 4 to 7 years.
Farmers like it because it eats scorpions and other pests.
Most asked questions about Giant vinegaroon
?Why does it smell like vinegar?
It sprays acetic acid from the base of its tail, and that is what makes vinegar smell.
?What does a vinegaroon eat?
Insects like crickets and cockroaches, plus millipedes, slugs, scorpions and even small frogs.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Mastigoproctus giganteus
- Named by
- Lucas, 1835
- Group
- Scorpions, ticks and friends
- Family
- Thelyphonidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Thelyphonida > Thelyphonidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Giant whip scorpion, Grampus, Texas giant vinegaroon
Where the facts come from
- Mastigoproctus giganteus (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 Jbjensen1. CC BY 4.0, 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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