Parabuthus villosus

Parabuthus villosus
A male P. villosus in Namibia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Scorpiones
Family:	Buthidae
Genus:	Parabuthus
Species:	P. villosus
Binomial name
Parabuthus villosus (Peters, 1862)

The black hairy thick-tailed scorpion, Parabuthus villosus, is a species of scorpion from southern Africa, where it ranges from the Northern Cape to Namibia. It is the largest species of the Buthidae, measuring up to 18 cm,^[1] and its diet may include lizards and mice.^[2] The species is often active at dawn and dusk, but takes refuge by day in a variety of shelters.^[1] It resembles Parabuthus transvaalicus, which is more strictly nocturnal, less hairy and with a more easterly distribution.^[3]

References

1. Jonathan Leeming (2003). "Southern African species". Scorpions of Southern Africa. Struik. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-86872-804-6.
2. Norman Larsen, Hamish Robertson. "Parabuthus villosus (Black hairy thick-tailed scorpion)". biodiversityexplorer. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
3. Vincent Carruthers (2005). "Spiders and other arachnids". The Wildlife of Southern Africa: A Field Guide to the Animals and Plants of the Region. Struik. pp. 14–27. ISBN 978-1-86872-451-2.