ARE THERE GIANT SCORPIONS IN FLORIDA?

Yours truly in front of a life-sized
model of a giant prehistoric scorpion, on exhibition at London’s Natural History
Museum when I visited in 2014 (© Dr Karl Shuker)

North America’s
largest known native species of scorpion is the desert hairy scorpion Hadrurus arizonensis, indigenous to the
deserts of the southwestern USA as well as Utah and Nevada, and can attain a
total length of up to 5.5 in (14 cm). Imagine my surprise, therefore, when on 9
November 2025 I received a fascinating email from Richard ‘Rick’ Stross,
containing two first-hand eyewitness accounts by him of seeing apparent giant
scorpions in Florida that he estimates at being almost twice as big as H. arizonensis. Here they are:

In the 1980s I was the hazardous waste specialist
for the South Florida District of the Florida Department of Environmental
Regulation (it is now called the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection). I saw the scorpions on a routine inspection of the waste at
the Highlands Leather Factory in the industrial park at the Sebring Airport in
Sebring, Highlands County, Florida.

While verifying that the labels on the containers
of chromium waste were properly filled out, I caught a glimpse of one as it
scurried across the floor. At first glance it appeared to be a scorpion about
one foot [30 cm] long. Since scorpions don’t get that big, I assumed that
my eyes were playing tricks on me and I actually saw a rat. When I told the
owner that I saw a rat but I would have sworn that it looked like a scorpion,
he smiled and took me to an office to show me a captive specimen in a
one-gallon glass jar. The captive scorpion was fully as long as the jar that
contained it. Gallon glass jars are usually about ten inches long, and
that is my estimate for the length of the captive scorpion.

The factory owner told me that the giant scorpions
are seen occasionally on the Sebring Airport, especially in and around the
leather factory. A man who was stung said the sting is extremely painful,
but not serious and he did not require medical attention. A scientist who
knew about insects said these scorpions remind him of scorpions from the
Caribbean islands. All information in this paragraph is from the factory owner;
I did not personally meet the stung man or the scientist.

 

Rick concluded his account by mentioning
that Highlands Leather Company received hides from around the world, so if the
scorpions had entered Florida as accidental stowaways in one such shipment,
they could have originated anywhere.

It occurred to me that American
cryptozoologist Chad Arment, who has a particular interest in reports of
mysterious American invertebrates, may have learnt of similar instances, so
with Rick’s permission I forwarded his email to Chad. On 10 November, I
received his reply, which reads as follows:

A few possibilities come to mind. a) It was a
vinegaroon [aka tailed whip scorpion], slightly exaggerated in length.
iNaturalist does show vinegaroons reported in Highlands Co., FL.  b) Years
ago, someone emailed me about seeing emperor scorpions in southern Florida. He
thought someone from the pet trade had released them for easy re-capture and
sale after they established a breeding colony. He wouldn’t tell me where
exactly, as it was part of his skunk ape research site. I would guess the
memory of length was mistaken, whatever it was…Interesting, though. Wish he
had pics.

 

A vinegaroon (tailed whip scorpion)
(Justin Overholt/public domain)

Chad also alluded
to the scorpion genus Centruroides,
which is represented by several North American species, the largest being C. sculpturatus, the Arizona bark
scorpion, up to 3.1 in (8 cm) long and, unlike H. arizonensis, sporting a very venomous sting. Moreover, they are
pests in the Caribbean. As for vinegaroons: occurring throughout the USA,
including Florida and even Alaska, these superficially scorpion-like but
taxonomically discrete arachnids do not exceed 3.3 in (8.5 cm) long, with most
species having a body length little more than an inch.

Conversely, the
emperor scorpion Pandinus imperator,
a species of true scorpion, has an average adult length of 8 in (20 cm), but
this species is not native to the USA, instead inhabiting the rainforests and
savannahs of West Africa. Yet because of its very impressive appearance, it is
popularly maintained as an exotic pet worldwide. Also, despite its stature, its
sting rarely affects humans severely. So, might Richard’s mega-scorpions have
been escapee/released emperors?

 

After forwarding
Chad’s comments to Rick, I received his response on 1 December, containing
these additional details:

The first scorpion I saw was moving and I only had
a glimpse of it. Therefore my estimate that it was about a foot long may be
exaggerated. Maybe it was only as long as the second scorpion I saw, the one in
the jar. It was still much bigger than any other scorpion I had ever seen,
either in Florida or in South America. In size it was closer to a rat than to
any other scorpion.  

The second scorpion was in a jar and I could
observe it better. It was bigger than any scorpion I had seen except
possibly the one I saw earlier in the leather factory. My guess of ten
inches long is because it was as long as the jar. I looked up the size of
gallon jars when I sent my first email and found them to usually be about ten
inches long. It’s possible that my memory is exaggerated and the scorpion was
slightly smaller than ten inches. Perhaps it was closer to eight or nine
inches. It was definitely huge for a scorpion, which is why the factory
owner kept it in a jar to display.

I had seen a vinigaroon before, and I am sure that
the specimen in the jar was a scorpion. 

Even at the most conservative size estimate offered
by Rick, these two scorpions were at least as large as the imperial scorpion, and
if they really were roughly 1 ft long they far exceeded it. Moreover, the
world’s largest known scorpion, the giant forest scorpion Heterometrus swammerdami, native to India and Sri Lanka, and again
a popular species in the pet trade due to its imposing appearance, ‘only’
measures up to 9 in (23 cm), thereby matching but not surpassing the lowermost
size estimate offered by Rick for the Florida mystery scorpions that he saw.

 

Vintage illustration of a giant forest scorpion Heterometrus swammerdami (public domain)

So what, taxonomically, did Rick see? With more than four decades having passed since his
sightings, there seems little hope that the bottled specimen was preserved
(surely it would have received publicity had it been), but might there still be
reports of living specimens scuttling around in that area? If any readers can
add any further details, please let me know!

My grateful thanks to Rick and Chad for kindly
sharing their information and thoughts with me.

 

Illustration of a giant scorpion pursuing the locals! (© Richard
Svensson)