I love that there are scorpions with really robust chelae that don't even bother to sting in defence or prey capture and just grab stuff with their pedipalps. grisps youuu
grisps youuuu
scorpion defensive behaviour from here, image from here
One scorpion grisps you, one scorpion stings you,,,, you'll never guess which
no that is not how scorpions work? her (has a really short 5th metasomal segment relative to other Androctonus australis meaning it's probably female) tail is 'big and showy' because it's filled with muscles for rapid stinging. If you click on the image it says what species it is (Androctonus australis) which is shown in the figure at the top of the post as being part of the genus tested that most consistently responds to threats solely by stinging. If you read the paper linked at the top of the post, it talks about how broader metasoma width is generally associated with greater inclination to sting rather than grab with pedipalps, faster stinging speed, and other experiments have shown it's also associated with stronger venom.
Also, that's not actually the 'tail' the section you're talking about is called the metasoma, which is actually a section of the main part of the body and still has the digestive tube running through it, the post anal region (actually analogous to a 'tail') is the telson, which is only the final stinging segment at the end. It's a common mistake but like most scorpion researchers think its quite silly to say that and if you don't know this you probably shouldn't be trying to correct people about scorpions.
In fact Androctonus australis is one of the few arachnid species that does actually kill people.
Also like the idea that something "big and showy" means it's not functional is wild, like yes there are display structures and sometimes things will pretend to be scary when they're not, but the reason that's an evolutionary strategy is because in most cases the "showy" feature is actually showing something such as "I can sting you very quickly and harmfully" or it's just purely functional like being full of muscles
