Short-tailed  Whipscorpions  -  Order:  Schizomida
      The Schizomida, or Short-tailed Whipscorpions, also known as Sprickets, is an Order of arachnids that derives its name of Whipscorpions from the fact that the first pair of legs is quite elongated like  long feelers or antennas and resembling a pair of whips.   They have somewhat elongated bodies and robust pedipalps.  The abdomen is terminated by a sexually dimorphic 'flagellum' (= tail-like, segmented structure) that serves a function during courtship rituals.  The shape of the flagellum is helpful in species identification.    Most Schizomids are between 2 and 12.5 mm. (average 5-6 mm.) in bodylength with the abdomen accounting for half, or just over half, of that.   
      Their scientific name means  'split or cleaved middle'  which refers to fact that the rear section of the cephalothorax is covered by two small plates that meet in the centre.  The front section is covered by a larger single plate.   
​It would appear that more is known about their taxonomic relationships than there is about their general biology and it is now fairly well established that there are two extant families containing 384 species in 78 genera.   A third extinct family contains a single genus with two species but there may still be some doubt among arachnologist about its placement in the Order: Schizomida.  
      Schizomids are found on all continents except Antarctica but the most diversity seems to be found there where warmer climates prevail.   They prefer fairly humid environments such as forest floors among the leaf litter, but also caves.  Australia has a sizeably diverse population of Short-tailed Whipscorpions with the 'Atlas of Living Australia' listing 73 species  which is nearly 20% of all known species.  (including57 species in 5 endemic genera.)  Whereas these numbers may well be out of date, it nonetheless serves to illustrate that, collectively, Australian scientists have made a considerable contribution to our knowledge of these creatures.      
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       The fossil record for the Schizomida reaches as far back as the Late Cretaceous just under 100 My ago,  The oldest specimens are from the Family: Hubbardiidae and were found in Arizona, U.S.A.  The now extinct Family: Calcitronidae appears to be more recent with fossils found in China at 38 at 38 My and, surprisingly, in the same quarry in Arizona but from a different stratum dated at about 5.3 My old.    
Taxonomy: 
References  and  links:
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>      Dunlop, J.A., Penney, D. and Jekel, D., (2016). ‘A summary list of fossil spiders and their relatives.’ In: ‘World Spider Catalog.’ Natural History Museum, Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch,  version 16.5, accessed on {21/03/2024}.
>      Kallal, R.J.,  de Miranda, G.S.,  Garcia, E.L.,  and  Wood, H.M.,  (2022).   ‘Patterns in schizomid flagellum shape from elliptical Fourier analysis.’   Sci.Rep 2022; 12(1): 3896   
doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-07823-y.
>      Müller, S.P., Dunlop, J.A.. Kotthoff, U., Hammel, J.U. and Harms, D., (2020). ‘The oldest short-tailed whipscorpion (Schizomida): A new genus and species from the Upper Cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar.’ Cretaceous Research, Volume 106, 2020, 104227, ISSN 0195-6671,  doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2019.104227.
>      Villarreal,M.O., Miranda, G. and & G iupponi, A., (2016). ‘New Proposal of Setal Homology in Schizomida and Revision of Surazomus (Hubbardiidae) from Ecuador.’ PLoS ONE. 11.   doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147012. 

      https://depositsmag.com/2016/08/30/fossil-arachnids/
      https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/54730-Schizomida
      https://www.mindat.org/taxon-7767.html​
      https://www.mindat.org/taxon-6902765.html​
      https://museum.wa.gov.au/catalogues-beta/schizomids
      https://wac.nmbe.ch/order/schizomida/5
      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8913634/
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