Forget ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in the night. This Halloween season, one of the creepiest critters crawling around is also one of the most devoted moms in the animal kingdom, and her parenting style is equal parts sweet and spine-chilling.
Imagine giving birth to as many as 100 babies at once! That's not all; imagine then hauling every last one of them around on your back for weeks. For scorpion moms, that's just another day on the job.
Born Ready (Almost)
Unlike most arachnids, female scorpions don't lay eggs. They give birth to live young! The newborns look like miniature versions of their parents, just much paler.
These tiny scorplings can't sting yet, and their exoskeletons (the hard outer shell that protects a scorpion's body) are so soft that any passing predator would make quick work of them.
Super-Scorpion-Mom to the Rescue
That's where mom comes in. Right after birth, the babies scramble up onto her back and pincer, riding piggyback while she stands guard.
She'll defend her brood with her life, keeping them safe until their first molt at about two weeks old, when their new exoskeletons begin to harden.
There's Always a Catch
But being a scorpion baby comes with one major risk. If mom gets hungry, she may pluck a few of the weaker babies off her back and turn them into a snack. Talk about a tough family dynamic!
The babies that make it through those first few weeks finally climb down and head out into the world, ready to hunt and fend for themselves. It's a short childhood, but a memorable one!
Get Wired Into Weird
Can't get enough of nature's strangest survival stories? Discover more in Ripley's Believe It or Not! Wired Into Weird, packed with jaw-dropping stories, bizarre creatures, and the oddities that make our world so much stranger.