Out of the seventy or so species of scorpions that live in North America, the state of Missouri only has a single scorpion species. The striped bark scorpion is the only naturally occurring species of scorpion in Missouri.
Striped bark scorpions are cousins to the Arizona bark scorpion, which is the only scorpion in the U.S. that packs a sting that is truly considered life-threatening.
Striped bark scorpions have fairly painful stings. However, they are no more medically significant than wasp stings. Even so, all scorpion stings have the potential to cause severe allergic reactions such as anaphylactic shock. If you have blurred vision, muscle spasms, chest tightness, or difficulty breathing after experiencing a scorpion sting, seek immediate medical attention.
Common Striped Bark Scorpion (Centruroides vittatus)
Striped bark scorpions, which also go by the common names plains scorpion, striped scorpion, or stripebacked scorpion, are Buthid Scorpions, just as the Arizona bark scorpion is. However, their sting is not nearly as dangerous as that of the Arizona bark scorpion. Common striped bark scorpions are the most common scorpion in the United States. Thousands of people are stung by them each year when they step on them with bare feet or come into accidental contact with them in some other manner.
Unlike northern scorpions and northern black hairy scorpions, which never venture far from their burrows, striped bark scorpions are wandering hunters. Like all bark scorpions, they are natural climbers. Besides living under rocks, they climb trees and fence posts and have no problem climbing the walls of your home. They actually have a negative geotaxis, or in other words, they prefer an upside-down orientation. See
Striped bark scorpions live in a wide variety of habitats, such as deciduous and coniferous forests, temperate grasslands, rocky areas, and deserts. During the day, they will take shelter under rocks, beneath loose bark, in crawl spaces, or in wood piles, etcetera.
Like all scorpions, they are nocturnal creatures and will be under shelter until after sundown. What’s more, as all scorpions do, they have fluorescent compounds in their exoskeletons that make them glow under black light. If you are camping in an area where striped bark scorpions are active, it’s a good idea to go armed with an ultraviolet flashlight. Use the ultraviolet light to scan your campsite after dark.
The range of the striped back scorpion begins in the northern Mexico states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. It then extends northward up to the southern counties of Nebraska. Their range also extends longitudinally from the Sangre de Cristo mountains and Rio Grande of New Mexico in the west and the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in the east. The following states have populations of striped bark scorpions: Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, and Texas.
Per the Show Me State, striped bark scorpions reside mainly in southern Missouri.
In areas with colder wintertime temperatures, striped bark scorpions survive by tolerating limited freezing of their body tissue. These scorpions then hibernate through the winter months.
What do striped bark scorpions look like?
All scorpions look a little bit like tiny land-dwelling lobsters with some distinctions. Lobsters have ten legs, while scorpions have eight, and of course, lobsters don’t have a bulbous venom-filled stinger on the end of their tail, while scorpions do.
Adult striped bark scorpions are up to 2 3/4″ long. An adult of this species is uniformly pale yellow in color, with the exception of two longitudinal dark stripes that run the length of its back and a dark triangular mark at the top of their heads. They have proportionately large pincers and a proportionately long tail.
Striped bark scorpion behavior
Striped bark scorpions mate in the fall and also occasionally in spring or early summer. The mating process begins with the male engaging the female scorpion in an elaborate mating dance called the promenade a deux. At this time, the male maneuvers the female to a spot where he can deposit a sperm packet called a spermatophore for her reception.
The male must hold the female over the spermatophore long enough for her to receive it. Therefore, larger males successfully mate a larger percentage of the time. If the female accepts the male’s spermatophore, the pair join together and rub chelicera in the “kiss” stage. At this point, the female takes up the spermatophore. What follows is about an 8-month gestation, after which their offspring are born alive.
After the newborn northern scorpions free themselves from the placental connection, they will climb up their mother’s walking legs and onto her back. The young scorpions ride there on their mother’s back in a grouped formation, only climbing down to feed on pellets that the female scorpions create for them when she feeds until they are sufficiently old to strike out on their own. This is generally after their first molt. See
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