Scorpion

Stingy spider

Scorpions are arachnids. You can easily tell by their eight legs. The two large grip claws are not legs but pedipalps and belong to the jaws.

Appearance and characteristics

The characteristic of scorpions is the venomous stinger in the hindquarters tip which they keep bent over the body prepared to sting. The stinger is used for defense, to kill larger prey and sometimes during mating. Toxicity varies among the approximately 1,750 species described but is not in any of them as dangerous as the rumor says. However, it can be fatal for young children, allergy sufferers, the elderly and people with heart disease if they are not given timely care. The most poisonous species is the Israeli gold scorpion. Scorpions are between 9 mm and 23 cm long.

During the ages of carbon and perm, 360 and 250 million years ago, they could be 80 cm long because the oxygen content of the air was much higher then. Scorpions breathe with 4 pairs of book lungs. These sit in the cavities on the underside of the body and look like leaves in an open book. Scorpions can have up to 10 eyes but are still unable to form sharp images. On the other hand, scorpions have the most light sensitive eyes in the animal kingdom, which is excellent for these mainly night-active hunters.

Reproduction

In the scorpions mating dance that can last for 24 hours or more, the male hold on to the female’s pedipalps. Sometimes the male injects a little venom into the female's claws to calm her. He puts a sperm package on the ground and pulls the female over it so she can pick it up. She can then choose to store the sperm for up to a year before fertilizing her eggs.

Females usually give birth to 8 live scorplings, but it can sometimes be up to 100 in a litter. They are born white and soft and crawl up on the mother's back and are protected by her for a few weeks until their shells become dark and hardened and they can manage on their own.