Scorpiones

Ecology

Habitat

The current species all are terrestrial and one meets them in a zone limited to north as in the south around the 50e degree of latitude.

The scorpions are animals particularly resistant that they are cold, to heat, the fast or even to the ionizing radiation S (more 150 time the amount mortal for the man: : 900 Gy against 6). They have a great adaptability which enabled them to settle on all the continents and in all the biotopes including under snow and of the intertidal marine zones . One can as well find them with 800 m of depth that with: 5500 m of altitude. The strongest concentration of scorpions is in the southern hemisphere, and one especially finds them in the hot areas.

Their complete absence of New Zealand indicates an interesting similarity with the distribution of the Mammifère S.

Activity

Their activity is primarily night and twilight.

The scorpions are predatory the primarily insectivorous ones. They nourish only alive preys which they paralyze using their venom or maintain firmly between their grips (called Pédipalpe S). They use however their venom with parsimony, stock spending two weeks to be reconstituted. The puncture of the caudal pivot, very painful, produced accidents which can become mortals for the man, especially when it is about large the Androctonus of Africa and Centruroides of South America.

One finds them under the stones in the arid places, in the old walls, some prefer the dwellings.

Life cycle and reproduction

The majority of the scorpions reproduce by sexuée reproduction, but some species are parthenogenetic, of not fertilized eggs giving rise to young people.

The sexual dimorphism is weak, the males are sometimes slimmer with a finer tail, but only of the subtle anatomical details allow the specialists to undoubtedly distinguish the sexes.

At the time of the parade, male and female are held by the grips and seem to carry out a dance which allows in fact the male to draw the female towards a favourable place where it will deposit its Spermatophore (rod of a few millimetres to one centimetre according to the species) that it sticks on the ground. The male must then bring the female exactly to the top of this Spermatophore so that it returns in its sexual organs. It can happen that the female devours the male at the end of this dance.

The scorpions are viviparous or ovoviviparous and give rise to each range according to the species between three and more than one small hundred called pullus that the female increases on its back of a few days to a few months.

Like all the animals having a Exosquelette, the growth is done by successive moults. The young scorpions moult regularly until the adulthood, as from this moment the moults will be spaced in time.

A scorpion lives between 3 and 10 years according to the species, largest living longer.

False idea concerning the suicide of the scorpions

The belief according to which the scorpions would commit suicide when they are surrounded by fire us comes from antiquity and is widespread in the countries where these animals exist. It is however inaccurate since venom does not have any effect on the scorpion itself, nor even on other scorpions of its species (unless being directly injected in the Nerve-knot, which is rather improbable apart from a laboratory). The false idea can come owing to the fact that the scorpions are Poïkilotherme S (with cold blood): when they are exposed to high temperatures, their metabolism functions badly. They are then taken spasms violent one, and one is then carried to believe that they strike to them-mêmes.
It is also false that the alcohol leads the scorpions to be struck until death.

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