Scorpions: Eight Things You Need To Know
Most of the time, articles about scorpions only serve to make people aware of how dangerous these creatures can be. However, the bad reputation of these insects is relatively unfair. In this article, you can learn some facts about scorpions and discover that they are amazing beings with impressive abilities.
8 fun facts about scorpions
1. Scorpions are poisonous arachnids
Scorpions are arthropods that belong to the Arachnida class. Arachnids include spiders, ticks and mites; they all have in common the fact that they have a body divided into two sections and eight legs.
All scorpions produce venom. Its frightening-looking tail is made up of five segments of the abdomen, curved upward, with a final segment called the telson, where the venom is produced.
The end has a sharp needle-like structure called the aculeum, which inoculates the venom.
A scorpion can control when to produce venom and how much to inoculate, in case it needs to kill prey or defend itself from predators.
2. Not so dangerous for people
The truth is, with rare exceptions, scorpions can’t do much harm to humans. Of the nearly 2,000 known species of scorpions in the world, only 25 produce a poison lethal enough for an adult human being.
Young children are more at risk simply because their size is smaller. In the United States, there is only one species of scorpion that requires greater care. The Arizona scorpion ( Centruroides sculpturatus ) produces a poison strong enough to kill a small child.
3. They are livebearers
Unlike insects, which usually lay eggs outside their bodies, scorpions produce fully formed offspring. That is, they are livebearers. The gestational stage can be very short (two months) or very long (18 months), depending on the species.
After birth, newborn scorpions climb onto their mothers’ backs, where they remain protected until they change their skin for the first time.
4. Scorpions have been on the planet for a long time
These creatures evolved from huge beings – about a meter long – that emerged from the sea. Fossil evidence shows that they have remained morphologically the same to this day.
The scorpion’s earliest ancestors probably lived in the seas, and likely had gills. In the Silurian period, 420 million years ago, some of these creatures arrived on land, so their ancestor was here before the dinosaurs.
5. Can survive almost anything
Knowing their antiquity, it is possible to imagine that they are surprisingly resistant animals. Although they normally live for two to three years, some scorpions can live to be 25 years old. Scorpions are indeed the champions of survival.
A scorpion can survive an entire year without eating or drinking. This is possible thanks to the fact that they can lower your metabolism when food is scarce. Because they have leafy or leafy lungs, they can survive even by remaining submerged in water for hours.
Scorpions live in harsh, dry environments. They have extremely low metabolic rates and only need a tenth of the oxygen of most insects.
Scorpions have shown a high resistance to the effects of radiative emissions. This makes their chances of surviving a nuclear attack much higher than most other animal species.
6. They eat almost everything they can catch
They are night hunters. Most scorpions feed on insects, spiders and other arthropods, but some feed on larvae and earthworms.
Large scorpions can eat larger prey. It is even known that some feed on small rodents and lizards.
While some eat everything, others specialize in particular prey, such as certain families of beetles or burrowing spiders. A hungry mother will eat her own offspring if resources are scarce.
7. glow in the dark
This is one of the biggest fun facts about scorpions. For reasons scientists are still debating, they glow under ultraviolet light. The scorpion’s cuticle – or skin – absorbs ultraviolet light and reflects it as visible light.
This characteristic has allowed to increase the number of documented scorpion species. Scorpion fossils can still fluoresce, despite having spent hundreds of millions of years embedded in rock.
7. The mating dance, one of the curiosities about scorpions
Scorpions participate in an elaborate mating ritual that includes a dance. The dance begins when the male and female make contact. During the dance, the male finds a suitable place for his spermatophore.
Once you have deposited your sperm packet, you guide the female over it and place her genital opening so she can collect the sperm. In the wild, the male tends to withdraw quickly when mating is complete. In captivity, the female usually devours her partner.
