# How strong are P. imperator claws in comparison to something like a crab or lobster?



## Moakmeister (Feb 7, 2017)

Emperor scorpions no doubt have incredibly powerful claws, being able to draw blood and rip apart the bodies of other scorpions (I've seen the aftermath of such an event. Poor males got killed by their girlfriends). It got me wondering how powerful their pincers are in comparison to crabs or lobsters of similar weight or size. What are your thoughts?

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## Arachnomaniac19 (Feb 7, 2017)

Moakmeister said:


> Emperor scorpions no doubt have incredibly powerful claws, being able to draw blood and rip apart the bodies of other scorpions (I've seen the aftermath of such an event. Poor males got killed by their girlfriends). It got me wondering how powerful their pincers are in comparison to crabs or lobsters of similar weight or size. What are your thoughts?


You'd have to measure it. You could get a good estimate from comparing claw mass and/or volume.


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## RTTB (Feb 8, 2017)

A better comparison may be to a crayfish which is closer in size. Even then I have no idea.

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## Pipa (Feb 8, 2017)

It's def a good pinch, same with Red Claws and Asian Forests ....


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## Smokehound714 (Feb 12, 2017)

Lobsters have two different main chelae- a Crusher and a Cutter.  the crusher is bigger and more powerful, the cutter is slightly smaller and the fingers are more serrate, for shredding flesh.  

 If an american lobster got a hold of your finger it'll snap it like a breadstick

Reactions: Informative 1


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## darkness975 (Feb 13, 2017)

The only way to really measure this accurately is to measure how many pounds per square inch an average pinch from one of the chela is.  I am aware that scientists have access to these types of machines but I am not aware of any commercially available prototypes.  Perhaps someone else could shed light on that.


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## PASTRAMI PARROT (Feb 14, 2017)

My African grey parrot can crack open walnuts and I don't have experience with scorpion pinches but I got a cut on my finger from a crayfish pinch last summer


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## Collin Clary (Feb 20, 2017)

From personal experience of being pinched by both crayfish and numerous _Pandinus _and _Heterometrus _species of the same size, I would say that they're fairly similar, with perhaps a slight edge to the crustaceans. (However this may be due to that the scorpions usually let go quite quickly after pinching me, rather than holding on like the crayfish.)

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## Moakmeister (Feb 21, 2017)

Collin Clary said:


> From personal experience of being pinched by both crayfish and numerous _Pandinus _and _Heterometrus _species of the same size, I would say that they're fairly similar, with perhaps a slight edge to the crustaceans. (However this may be due to that the scorpions usually let go quite quickly after pinching me, rather than holding on like the crayfish.)


Scorpions do seem to have a more flighty nature to them. Crayfish don't have sensory hairs and instead have somewhat good eyesight.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Spidermolt (Feb 21, 2017)

Ive been pinched several good times by emperors and red claws but they've never been close enough to draw blood.  Id rate them a little stronger than crayfish and fiddler crabs (which Ive stuck my fingers in their pincers before just for fun when catching them ). 

crabs hurt like heck and can easily draw blood or crush through a fingernail (I don't get pinched by them for fun ). even hermit crabs hurt more than scorpions IMO. 

Lobsters are really strong and getting pinched would just be a really bad idea.


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## Moakmeister (Feb 22, 2017)

Spidermolt said:


> Ive been pinched several good times by emperors and red claws but they've never been close enough to draw blood.  Id rate them a little stronger than crayfish and fiddler crabs (which Ive stuck my fingers in their pincers before just for fun when catching them ).
> 
> crabs hurt like heck and can easily draw blood or crush through a fingernail (I don't get pinched by them for fun ). even hermit crabs hurt more than scorpions IMO.
> 
> Lobsters are really strong and getting pinched would just be a really bad idea.


Well like @Collin Clary said, scorpions jab more than they really pinch. It's much more defensive than the aggressive pinches of crustaceans. Like "whoah, buddy, I'll grab you harder next time if you don't back off". The crabs can see what they're doing. I've seen some of those retarded bug fight videos on Youtube of scorpions vs crayfish or crabs, and the scorpions usually win due to their venom. But the crayfish and the scorpion both seem to have no injuries whatsoever.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Informative 1


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## Collin Clary (Feb 23, 2017)

I will say that I was pinched very hard by one of my _P. imperator_ once; it did draw blood.

In this situation though it was a feeding response rather than a defensive one. I was cleaning the enclosure, and had set down the forceps in front of the piece of bark that the scorpion was hiding under. When I went to pick up the forceps, one of the scorpions immediately reached out and grabbed my pinky finger hard with its chela, and held on for a moment rather than immediately letting go as they typically do. (It had mistaken my finger for a prey item.)

Even in that situation though, it didn't hold on nearly as long as crayfish normally do. I was doing a survey of the crayfish population for a creek for a zoology class, and I must have been pinched a few dozen times in one day, by crayfish of a wide variety of sizes (including ones that were quite large). The little bastards didn't want to let you when the pinched you, and would continue to hold on even after you released them. I had a couple of the larger ones draw blood.


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## Moakmeister (Feb 23, 2017)

Collin Clary said:


> I will say that I was pinched very hard by one of my _P. imperator_ once; it did draw blood.
> 
> In this situation though it was a feeding response rather than a defensive one. I was cleaning the enclosure, and had set down the forceps in front of the piece of bark that the scorpion was hiding under. When I went to pick up the forceps, one of the scorpions immediately reached out and grabbed my pinky finger hard with its chela, and held on for a moment rather than immediately letting go as they typically do. (It had mistaken my finger for a prey item.)
> 
> Even in that situation though, it didn't hold on nearly as long as crayfish normally do. I was doing a survey of the crayfish population for a creek for a zoology class, and I must have been pinched a few dozen times in one day, by crayfish of a wide variety of sizes (including ones that were quite large). The little bastards didn't want to let you when the pinched you, and would continue to hold on even after you released them. I had a couple of the larger ones draw blood.


Yeah scorpions do the jab thing as a defensive strike. Feeding responses involve grabbing and attempting to crush the prey. The same can be seen with tarantulas, where a defensive bite is a fast strike and backing off, but a feeding response is to grab the prey and bite it and just mangle it. I guess the scorpions and tarantulas know they if they hold on, their attacker will fling them around and they'll die from being thrown. In the water that doesn't happen, hence why crustaceans hold on for dear life.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Ilovepredators (Feb 25, 2017)

Moakmeister said:


> Emperor scorpions no doubt have incredibly powerful claws, being able to draw blood and rip apart the bodies of other scorpions (I've seen the aftermath of such an event. Poor males got killed by their girlfriends). It got me wondering how powerful their pincers are in comparison to crabs or lobsters of similar weight or size. What are your thoughts?


I'll add a little of my experience in case anyone has any curiosity here.  I've never been pinched by any scorpion except Hadogenes troglodytes, definitely a strong pinch.  Before I got into arachnids I did fish and many species of crayfish and in my experience I believe crayfish claws are not that strong.  The majority of the pain you receive from what I have experienced is from the tips of their claws which have a small inward facing spike on both sides.  The reason I came to this conclusion is catching many wild crayfish. I have found a number of them missing the tips of the claws and I felt little to no discomfort when they would pinch.


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