Week Three: Escape!

There are very few animals in the Insect Zoo that make me uncomfortable, but one of them is the Amblypygid. This tailless whip scorpion (see picture above) won’t do any permanent damage, but is quick and has always managed to freak me out. Now, in my defense, I should mention that I have never let anything escape in the Insect Zoo. Until…

One morning this week I was helping with the daily prep before the museum opened. Prep includes checking all public displays for dead animals, cleaning the displays, making sure that food and plants in exhibit cases are fresh, misting the animals, etc. I am not normally responsible for the Amblypygid case, but this week, for the first time in three years at the museum, the job was mine. Terrific. The cases open from the back, so the first thing I did was to check through the glass to make sure that there weren’t any animals on the back wall of the case. It was all good—nobody there. I checked twice because I did not want any surprises. Then I walked around to the back and opened the door—ever so slightly-- to reach in with the mister. And as soon as the door was opened, an Amblypygid jumped off the back wall and onto the floor.

We stared at each other for a moment and then it skittered under the display case. I didn’t quite know what to do. I went to find the intern who normally deals with them. He’d know what to do, right? This must happen all the time. Piece of cake. Only the intern said that he’d never seen that happen before. And he was impressed that I’d managed to lose one. (Sarcasm—just what I needed.) More importantly, he didn’t seem too eager to dive in after it either. So, not yet off the hook after all.

We found a plastic container. I took a deep breath, got down on the ground and peered under the case. There sat the Amblypygid. With all of his legs. Staring at me. I gathered my nerves, reached under the cabinet and threw the container lid over him. He skittered some more but was contained. I carefully slid the lid out from under the case. Then blessedly, the other intern (an entomology major who should be able to handle these things!) scooped him back into the rest of the container using the lid and threw him back into the case. The entire process only took ten minutes. Ten long minutes.