Whip Spiders And Whip Scorpions

This group gathers Arachnids subcategory members belonging to Amblypygi, the whip spiders, and the related orders Thelyphonida and Schizomida, the whip scorpions and short-tailed whip scorpions, arachnids named for a thin, whip-like sensory or defensive structure at the rear or front of the body despite carrying no venomous sting at all. Whip spiders, despite the name, are neither true spiders nor scorpions: they carry no silk-producing glands and no stinger, instead relying on a pair of enormously elongated, spiny front legs, modified into whip-like sensory feelers used to detect prey and navigate almost entirely by touch in the dark, tropical and subtropical caves, forests and rock crevices most species inhabit. Whip scorpions, also called vinegaroons for a defensive spray of acetic acid, the same compound that gives vinegar its smell, that some species release from a gland at the base of the tail when threatened, use their thickened front legs as sensory feelers in a similar way, in place of the enormous pedipalp pincers a true scorpion relies on.