What are scorpions?
A fact about scorpions that is not commonly known is that they actually fall under the same category as spiders – they are arachnids. Scorpions and spiders are distant cousins. Like spiders, scorpions have eight legs, no antenna or wings, and they have a strictly carnivorous diet that contains mostly insects. Unlike spiders, scorpions can be recognized by their front pincers (also called pedipalps) and their long tails. The tail end has a venomous stinger that is used to paralyze their prey or to scare off predators. Scorpions do not have bones. Instead, they have thick, flexible, exoskeletons made out of chitin, much like the shells of shrimp.