![]() Their predators include centipedes, shrews, owls, bats, hornbills, and coyotes. Scorpions use their venom to subdue their prey and for protection. ![]() Some toxins are more useful on insects, some on crustaceans, and some on vertebrates. Scorpions may have as many as 45 different toxins in their venom. Usually, scorpions find a meal at least every two to three weeks and play an important role in their ecosystem by keeping insect populations low. Scorpions don't eat every day like we do, and in drier habitats, they have been known to go without food for up to 12 months, as long as they have water. Scorpions have a very tiny mouth and can only suck up liquid, so prey that is caught is mashed up and bathed in enzymes that dissolve the prey's insides, a process that may take up to an hour. Younger and smaller scorpions may use their stinger more often than older and larger ones. Most scorpions use their venomous sting only if needed, as it takes a lot of body energy to produce more venom. Once the prey is within reach, it is grabbed with the pincers and crushed. Scorpions have such sensitive hairs on their pedipalps that they can even locate and snap up an insect in flight. Others forage for their prey, and some even dig pitfall traps in the sand for prey. Many wait by their burrow with pedipalps open and stinger raised until their unsuspecting prey wanders by. Scorpions use different ways to get a meal, which may be an insect, spider, or even a small mouse or lizard. Scorpions that do not burrow may climb trees or hide under bark or leaf litter for shelter. Their burrows are typically small and snug. ![]() Scorpions use the burrows and other types of shelters to hide from predators and to stay cool during hot days and warm during cold nights. Many live in burrows they dig or claim and defend from other wildlife. As adults, most scorpions are nocturnal and solitary, usually staying in the same territory throughout their lives. Scorpions are found on every continent except Antarctica, in habitats ranging from tropical rainforests to grasslands and deserts. ![]() In Egyptian mythology, the goddess Isis was linked with scorpions, as she was a symbol of a devoted mother, and scorpion mothers protect and carry their young on their backs. This is also not true, as scorpions usually hunt live prey, and they do not seek out other scorpions except to mate. In Africa, it is a widely held belief that a dead scorpion attracts all the other scorpions in the area. This is not true, as they are immune to their own venom. Some people believe that scorpions commit suicide by stinging themselves when threatened by fire. Even so, many cultures have myths involving scorpions and their powers. Scorpions are numerous in many regions but are rarely seen, due to their nocturnal and secretive nature. There are fossil records from that time period of a marine scorpion that grew up to 3.3 feet (1 meter) long! Today, scorpions use book lungs to breathe, a type of breathing organ also used by some spiders and very similar to gills. Scorpions have been on Earth a long time and are among the first animals to have adapted to land living-around 420 million years ago. Though scorpions have no true “tail,” the appearance of one on the abdomen is called the metasoma, and it ends with a sharp stinger and venom glands. Male scorpions also use the pectines to find an available female, and newborn scorpions use them to recognize their mother. Scorpions find their way through sensory structures in their legs, by feeling along with brush-like structures called pectines attached to the underside of the abdomen, and through fine sensory hairs to detect vibrations. The scorpion's four pairs of legs are attached to the prosoma as well. In general terms, however, their eyes mostly tell movement and light from dark. The prosoma has two eyes on top and two to five lateral eyes along each side (as many as five pairs).Įven with all those eyes, scorpions can't see very well! Yet the sensitivity of their eyes is among the highest in all arthropods and dependent on the kinds of habitats in which they live. Scorpions are not insects but arachnids, like spiders, and have eight legs and two main body regions, the prosoma, or cephalothorax, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen. This is probably due to their fearsome look, with pincers called pedipalps at one end and a stinger filled with venom at the other. Scorpions strike terror in many people and have been both hated and admired since ancient times.
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