Scorpion

Hello! I am a scorpion. You can tell it’s me because I have eight legs for walking, two big pincers at the front that look like claws, and a long, curved tail. Right at the tip of my tail is a special stinger. My family is very, very old. In fact, my ancestors were some of the very first animals to live on land. That was over 435 million years ago, which is a long time before the dinosaurs ever walked the Earth! We have been around for a very long time, scurrying across the ground.

I am a nocturnal creature, which is a fancy way of saying I love the nighttime. When the sun goes down and everything gets cool and dark, that’s my favorite time to be awake. During the day, I hide away, but at night, I come out to hunt for my dinner. I use my big pincers to grab my favorite snacks, like crunchy crickets and other little insects that crawl around. I have a really cool secret, too. If you shine a special kind of light called ultraviolet light on me, I have a superpower. I can glow a beautiful, bright blue-green color! It makes me look like a little star shining in the dark.

I am also a mom, and my babies are called scorplings. They are so tiny when they are born. Unlike spiders or insects that lay eggs, I give birth to live babies. As soon as my scorplings are born, they do something amazing. They all climb right up onto my back for safety. I give them a piggyback ride everywhere I go for about a week or two. I keep them safe and sound on my back until they grow bigger and are strong enough to go off on their own and start their own adventures.

My story is almost over, but I want to tell you about my important job. Some people might be a little scared of me because of my stinger, but I am actually a great helper in my environment. By eating lots of insects, I help keep my desert home in balance. I make sure there aren't too many bugs crawling around. So, even though I am small, I am a tiny but mighty protector of the world around me.