The Tale of Many-Legs and Sharp-Tail

There are many wonderful and outlandish insects in the tropics. Some you've heard of but never seen so big, some have yet to be named and fully described, others you've heard of but didn't want to encounter. This is a tale from the last category.

One night Janet, I and daughter Elle were relaxing on our sectional sofa watching a DVD movie. This sofa is a brown plush sectional with large, overstuffed pillows along the back and sides. Suddenly, Elle announces "Oh, I just got a sharp pain in my backl" We investigated to find two small red puncture marks about 1/4 inch apart on her lower back. This indeed looked like a bite! At this point it was movie off and emergency response. Janet whipped off the sofa cushions and there we found a fine squiggling 15 cm specimen of a Costa Rican centipede like this one:

We captured him (her?) in a dust pan and put him in a plastic baggie. After applying insect sting liquid and looking on the internet, we found these guys are carnivorous and have a mild toxic sting, somewhat like a wasp, but not deadly. Elle felt an initial sting that went away after a short time, with no side effects. We deposited him outside in the shrubs to hunt for prey more his size. After a THOROUGH search and no more such visitors, and Elle wrapping up in a thick (insect-bite-proof) blanket, we resumed the movie. Funny, I have forgotten the title...

Onward to CCE (creepy crawly encounter) no.2. While on a trip to Samara on the Pacific coast over Christmas with Elle, Janet's daughter, Andrea and boyfriend Mike, Elle was feasted on again. This time in the middle of the night, while putting on a Tshirt that had been lying on the floor, she was stung on the index finger by a teen-age Centruroides limbatus (scorpion).

Jerking her hand from the sting, she launched the scorpion onto the bathroom counter. Gathering herself, she came to the door of the adjoining bedroom where Janet and I were sleeping and (more calmly than I would) announced "Dad, I've just been stung by a scorpion." An initial thought was "well, the only thing left is a snake..." All hands were soon up. I put on more insect sting ointment while the others pursued the scorpion and Mike captured it in the bathroom. After a photo in a drinking glass, Mike gallantly took glass and scorpion out of the room, across the courtyard, out of the hotel, across the street, to release it in bushes near the beach. Later internet search shows that scorpions in CR can give a painful sting, but not deadly. They also commonly come in pairs, though we never found the other one. After a couple of days, the little red sting spot was gone from Elle's finger, leaving no lasting souvenir. This encounter reinforces a good practice of always shaking out clothes and knocking out shoes in the tropics, especially anything that has been on the floor.