![]() ![]() One group of tarantulas you should watch out for are the ornamental tarantulas (genus: Poecilotheria), found in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, tarantula venoms are generally not considered dangerous to humans, with no recorded fatalities to date. In other words, your heart cannot pump enough blood to key organs like the brain and kidneys. ![]() For example, deathstalker scorpions (genus: Leiurus) have slender pincers, but their potent venom is filled with neurotoxins that overexcite the nervous system, leading to myocardial injury, pulmonary oedema, and cardiogenic shock. There are estimated to be over one million scorpion envenomations each year, resulting in more than 3,000 fatalties worldwide.Īs a general rule of thumb, the smaller the scorpion pincers, the more potent the venom. They’ve been fine-tuned by hundreds of millions of years of evolution to be fast-acting, potent and selective, allowing them to catch their prey ( usually insects) and defend themselves from predators (such as mice and birds).Īlthough spiders have the more fearsome reputation, it’s actually scorpion venoms you should be worried about. Scorpions inject venom via the stinger in their tail, while tarantulas inject via their fangs.īoth spider and scorpion venoms are complex cocktails of thousands of different molecules that mainly target the nervous system. Scorpions and tarantulas have a superweapon in their arsenal: venom. These hairs can severely irritate soft mammalian skin and eyes however, they would be ineffective against the scorpion’s tough exoskeleton. Many tarantula species have another special defence called urticating hairs, which are barbed bristles flung from the abdomen against potential attackers. What spiders lack in pincers, they make up for with metal-tipped fangs, enabling them to easily punch through chitin and inflict painful puncture wounds. The goliath birdeater ( Theraphosa blondi) in South America, for example, has an impressive body length of 12 centimetres, with legs spanning nearly 30 centimetres (the size of an A4 page). Spiders on Team Tarantula also have the advantage of size. Luckily, in a pinch, a tarantula could drop its leg to get away, and regrow the leg as it continues moulting. ![]() ![]() One of the world’s largest scorpions, the giant forest scorpion ( Heterometrus swammerdami), can grow up to 22 centimetres long, and could use its powerful pincers to crush a tarantula. Scorpions also have grasping pincers to catch and tear prey, which they could use to grab onto the tarantula. On Team Scorpion, we have tough armour in the form of a hardened exoskeleton made of overlapping layers of chitin, a protein that’s similar to the keratin in our nails. Scorpions and tarantulas are typically ambush predators that “sit and wait” for their prey. In the wild, scorpions and tarantulas rarely cross paths, but they will battle to protect their territory or themselves as sometimes they try to eat each other.Īt first glance, the fight seems evenly matched. The question comes down to three things: size, speed, and venom. Well, with more than 900 species of tarantulas and 2,500 species of scorpions found worldwide, the winner depends on who’s facing off in the ring. Scorpions and tarantulas are two ancient arachnids that have been walking the Earth for hundreds of millions of years - even before the time of the dinosaurs.Īnd the question of which would win in a fight has been the subject of numerous YouTube videos, online forums and even research papers. ![]()
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