By Richard Tan | 2023-07-03
![Community photo entitled by Steve Price on 06/30/2023 at The Last Chance Desert, Utah](https://earthsky.org/upl/gravity_forms/6-d184048789a60d766a02a8e43117298b/2023/07/Scorpion-Collage.png)
On 06/30/2023 11:45 pm by Steve Price| The Last Chance Desert, Utah
Here's a collage of some of the scorpions I discovered while walking around my campsite. I would guess the total count was around 50 or so specimens. Very easily found with the UV light or by flipping a cow pie over. The average size I encountered was about two and a half inches for the adults and down to half and inch for some of the juveniles I found underneath dried cow pies. These small ones were fully formed in miniature. When concealed they were curled up tightly and would easily fit on top of a finger nail with room to spare.
This particular species is "Paruroctonus boreus, commonly known as the Northern Scorpion, and is the northernmost species of scorpion, the only scorpion found in Canada, and one of the scorpions with the broadest distribution over North America." - Wikipedia
I had a great nighttime adventure under the moon and stars hunting scorpions and whatever else glowed under the blacklight. There was a fluorescent worm under one cow pie about 2 inches long, took a few pics, but don't know much about them. A few plants had fluorescing properties as did some minerals in the soil. Overall, the UV light just cast a purple glow over the desert flora until a scorpion was located from about 5 yards away or closer. No scorpions or other critters were harmed during my visit in The Last Chance Desert.
Google Pixel 5 cell phone and UV flashlight
Cropped and composited into a collage.