Delta danger II

Before heading off to Namibia I had bought myself a so-called black light, an ultraviolet torch. This is used by weirdos to look for scorpions in the dark of night, so I of course had to get one! Namibia is absolutely crawling with these arachnids in some places, but to my disappointment I didn't find any in the desert, as I had expected. But, as usual, when you stop looking for something – you find it... and not always where you expect.

I was going to bed the second night at Guma lodge in Botswana, on the western outskirts of Okavango, and was conducting my usual bed time routine of getting all the delta's mosquitoes and other bugs out from underneath my mosquito net. I couldn't believe my eyes when I found the smallest scorpion I've ever seen, on the inside of the mosquito net! This creature wasn't more than 2.5 cm long, but had a proportionally large tail and small pincers... and we all know what that means; danger!

I didn't waste any time, but jumped out of bed as if it was on fire and rushed into the bathroom, grabbing a glass and leaping back into bed again. Carefully scooping it into the one glass and covering it with another, I was satisfied to have caught it and thoroughly enjoyed my new toy (the torch) for quite a while, before falling to sleep with my temporary pet in a glass next to my bed.

The tiny creature was passed around the dinner table next evening, before we went out in the dark so that I could show off my black light and explain about the fluorescent chemicals in the exoskeleton, etc. I realize I should have taken a photograph or two, but for once in my life, I was too fascinated to think of it, so I'm borrowing a picture, to give an idea of what they look like in ultraviolet light; awesome!

Me and two of the rangers spent over two hours each, trying to identify the creature, but didn't get any the wiser. We finally agreed it was probably a Deathstalker, or a relative thereof. Could there be a better name for a scorpion?! Of course I released this little guy, sneaking away to do so, in case someone hadn't bonded with him and wanted him gone.

Some guests were a bit confused as to why a person walks around with an ultraviolet torch... Me? I'm just questioning the fact that I didn't buy one ages ago.

/A