Bulldozer - Apr 24th, 2015
The scorpion is one of the species of terrestrial arthropods, which belongs to the arachnids, although in appearance it is very similar to cancer. He has 4 pairs of legs, a sting that resembles a tail, it should be noted that this sting is poisonous. But the scorpion does not pose too much danger to human life (with the exception of some species). After a scorpion sting, redness and swelling appear on the human skin.
The scorpion hunts at night, so it is almost impossible to see it in the daytime. Yes, and at night it is not easy to get to know him, because he hears the steps of a person and immediately hides in a safe place.
Photo: scorpion insect - beautiful pictures.
There are quite a few species of scorpion (about 650), their body length ranges from 0.5 cm to 20 cm. Scorpions live for a maximum of 10 years, but in captivity this period is significantly reduced, because they are poorly adapted to artificial conditions. At this time, there are species of scorpions that are about to disappear.
The scorpion hunts with the help of claws: with them he grabs his prey and injects poison into the body. From such a bite, almost all small mammals die in a matter of seconds.
Video: Scorpions: pets for extreme sports
Video: Sensitive scorpions.
To this day, more than 1,400 species of scorpions have been known and described. Their size varies from 13 mm to 20 cm. One of the largest scorpions is a stone or flat-bodied species - Hadogenes, reaching a length of 20-21 cm. It lives in Botswana, Mozambique and some other countries of South Africa.
Scorpions (Scorpiones) belong to the order of arachnids (arachnids)
The same size (20-23 cm) reaches the imperial scorpion (Pandinus imperator) - a species of scorpion that lives in the tropical forests of Africa (Congo Basin, Ghana, Nigeria). The scorpion emperor rarely uses his venomous sting and mostly uses his massive claws.
Scorpions are characterized by a large sting located on the last segment of the abdomen. Contrary to popular belief, they are not usually aggressive and do not attack without good reason especially for beings larger than themselves. However, they can be deadly to humans. The venom of some species can kill within minutes.
Scorpions are very fond of warm places, mainly tropical and subtropical zones. Desert areas are most attractive to scorpions. During the day, scorpions can hide under tree trunks, crawl under stones or even small holes, which sometimes dig themselves. At night, the hunt for spiders begins. But the scorpion will not disdain other insects either ..
During the hunt, the scorpion catches the victim with claws, and the sting that digs into the caught insect completes the case. Poison is released from the sting, immobilizing and killing. After that, the victim can no longer provide worthy resistance.
Scorpions can hide almost anywhere: under the carpet in the apartment, in bed or shoes, so they can be dangerous to humans. The venom of some species can be fatal to humans.
A person who has just been bitten by a large African scorpion or a scorpion from the American continent begins to sweat profusely and loses consciousness. In the venom of a scorpion there are enzymes - phospholipases, which are the cause of the destruction of the cell membranes of red blood cells. As a result, a person develops shortness of breath, muscle paralysis, tachycardia, or even paralysis of the central nervous system may occur. In addition, blindness can occur after a scorpion sting, and nervous system fully recovered for at least another week. Scorpion venom is most dangerous for children and requires immediate hospitalization and administration of antivenom. If the injection is not given in time, the person usually dies.
Scorpions lead a reclusive life, when they meet, they can come to grips with a deadly end.
Scorpions are viviparous
Scorpions are viviparous. During the first week of life little scorpion it is attached to the mother's back and moves with the mother. They do not receive food from their mother, and after a week the babies begin an independent life.
Scorpions are sometimes confused with false scorpions (Pseudoscorpionida), which are a predatory arachnid. This insect has a size of 1 to 8 mm in length. False scorpions do not have venom, but they do have pincers. They feed mainly on the larvae of moths and other insects that are harmful in household. Their presence in the house does not pose a threat and is very useful.
Do you know that.
Scorpion (Dionychopodes) - poisonous insect measuring 10-20 centimeters in length. The scorpion has a pointed tail raised upwards, tentacles and a poisonous apparatus at the end of the tail.
Scorpions live in countries with a warm or hot climate, and are found in a variety of places - in moist forests, on the sea shores, in rocks and sandy deserts. Some species are found in the mountains at great heights.
All of them are active at night, and during the day they hide in shelters, under stones, under loose bark, in the burrows of other animals or burrow into the soil, even in dry areas they find places where the air is quite humid. Most scorpions love warmth, but some who live high in the mountains hibernate during the winter.
Some people keep them at home as pets. Scorpions in captivity cannot live in one place. Their conditions of detention should be varied. Big square with sand different humidity soil or sand in its different parts, the presence of shelters, periodic changes in illumination and temperature. Scorpios are very capricious.
Even living in a human house, the scorpion goes hunting at night, and moves especially quickly and sleeps little in the hot season. So, he slowly walks with his “tail” raised, putting forward half-bent claws. He moves by feeling with the help of hairs sticking out on his head. Scorpio reacts very sensitively if it suddenly touches something moving. Then he either grabs it if it looks like prey, or retreats, assuming a threatening posture: he abruptly bends the "tail" over his head and swings it from side to side.
He grabs his prey with his claws. If the prey resists, the scorpion stings it one or more times, immobilizing and killing with poison. Scorpions feed on live prey. The objects of his hunting are very diverse: spiders, centipedes, various insects and their larvae, cases of eating small lizards and even mice are known. Scorpions can starve for a very long time, they can be kept without food for several months. Most scorpion species probably go their entire lives without water. But some scorpions that live in tropical rainforests drink water.
A hard shell and a poisonous apparatus do not always save scorpions from enemies. There are monkeys that feast on scorpions, carefully removing the "tail". But worst enemy scorpions - man. Since ancient times, people did not like scorpions, they were afraid of them. There is no other insect about which there would be so many stories and legends.
Some people believe that scorpions can kill themselves if they surround it with burning embers. It is not true. But still, if a scorpion suddenly finds itself among hot coals, it, of course, rushes about in search of a way out, assumes a threatening posture, waves its “tail”, and then suddenly becomes motionless. This is a defensive reaction. He didn't die at all, he just sits and doesn't move.
It is also not true that a scorpion specifically looks for a sleeping person at night in order to sting him. Where there are many scorpions, on hot nights, making their hunting walks, they often visit people's dwellings, and can climb onto the bed. If a sleeping person crushes a scorpion or touches it, then the scorpion can hit with a “tail”. But he doesn't do it on purpose.
Virulence different types scorpions is different. It is best not to meet a scorpion, but if you meet it, do not step on it, and it will not attack.
There are also water scorpions. They slowly move through the water, clinging to plants with their claws. At the rear end of the body, they have a long process, which is a breathing tube in order to breathe in the water. Sometimes you can see a curious picture. Two scorpions grapple with pincers and, with their tails upright, walk together for many hours. Well, just like people!
Scorpions live for several years. Currently, there are about 150 species of these insects. They are found mainly in those countries where it is hot in both winter and summer.
An unusual and terrible-looking pest lives in many city apartments - the book false scorpion, it does not pose a danger to humans at all, and it also exterminates numerous apartment pests.
What does a book pest look like?
There are many varieties of false scorpions, most of them live in forests and caves, under stones and in bird nests, and the book species has adapted to living in an apartment, where it chooses bookshelves and cabinets for its home.
Pseudoscorpions move slowly, helping themselves to move along vertical surfaces with tentacles with suction cups. And in dangerous situation they prefer to pretend to be dead, pressing their paws to the sides of the calf and freezing in a motionless pose. When oscillatory movements of air or other phenomena unpleasant for insects occur, they can run fast, book individuals move most often sideways (like crabs), although they can walk both forward and backward.
On average, false scorpions live for about 2-3 years, reproduce sexually no more than once a year. The larvae grow attached to the mother's body in order to be able to feed on her body. At the time of molting, insects build nests for themselves, in which females stay without getting out for about a week. To make a nest, insects can use small plant remains, grains of sand and pieces of paper, gluing all the particles together with a cobweb, females form a kind of cocoon for themselves, in which it is warm and dry.
The benefits and harms of false scorpions
In nature, these insects feed on fly larvae, mites and small spiders; the diet of the book species is not very different. False scorpions living at home exterminate any small insects, these include book and dust louse, small bugs and ticks. Thus, false scorpions can be called orderlies bookshelves, because they exterminate a lot of pests, which helps to keep things in order, and save a person from allergic reactions and other troubles.
However, there are situations when the number of such insects increases rapidly, which causes a lot of concern to residents. small apartment. Although the book inhabitants will not bring any harm to a person, since they do not have poisonous reserves and do not emit toxic substances, they can be annoying just by their presence. In this case, it is necessary to prevent the occurrence of insects in the house.
Is it worth it to fight book false scorpions?
The best option would be to prevent the occurrence of unwanted insects in the apartment:
- First, do regular general cleaning in the house, get rid of garbage, do not store old newspapers and magazines, do not force corners with things;
- secondly, ventilate the premises as often as possible and carry out wet cleaning using chemicals;
- thirdly, periodically treat places under the sink and behind cabinets with dichlorvos or special solutions against household pests.
These basic rules of indoor hygiene will help you prevent the appearance of many unpleasant insects and keep your apartment tidy and clean.
Scorpions (lat. Scorpiones) - a detachment of arthropods from the class of arachnids (Arachnida). Exclusively terrestrial forms that are found only in hot countries. In total, about 1750 species of scorpions are known.
Scorpio - description, structure.
Appearance The scorpion is quite intimidating: the cephalothorax, wide in front and slightly tapering to the junction with an elongated segmented abdomen, is crowned with a pair of impressive claws that serve as a tool for capturing the long-awaited prey. Another pair of limbs of the scorpion has become a vestige, located at the very mouth and performs the function of the jaw organs - the mandibles. The remaining four pairs of legs of the scorpion, attached to the lower part of the abdomen, provide it with a fairly high speed of movement on shifting sand in the desert or on rocky soils in mountainous areas.
A relatively small pear-shaped segment-capsule with glands that produce poison adjoins the last segment of the abdomen. The poison of a scorpion is very dangerous, the scorpion injects it into its prey with the help of sharp needle. The body of a scorpion is covered with a very strong chitinous shell, so it has practically no enemies that can harm it.
Origin
The ancestors of scorpions are Paleozoic racoscorpions (eurypterids). On the example of scorpions, the evolutionary transition from aquatic life to land life is well traced. The Silurian eurypterids, which lived in water and possessed gills, had much in common with scorpions. Land forms close to modern scorpions have been known since the Carboniferous.
Scorpion breeding.
The mating season for scorpions is very unusual. Male and female perform an intricate and interesting "wedding" dance, sometimes lasting for hours. All this time, the male scorpion holds the female by the claws and leads her back and forth across the soil, periodically lowering the partner to the ground, where he had previously released his sperm.
The gestation period of a female scorpion lasts from 10 to 12 months, and the number of cubs varies from two to several dozen, depending on the species. For the first 8-12 days, small scorpions are not covered with a chitinous shell and spend time on their mother's back, clinging tightly to each other. As soon as the hard shell is formed, they disperse throughout the territory and begin an independent existence. AT vivo Scorpions live 7-10 years.
After mating, the female sometimes kills and eats her boyfriend with excellent appetite.
The largest scorpion
Male Indo-Malay scorpion Heterometrus swannerderdami are often over 180mm long, i.e. from the tips of the pincers to the tip of the stinger. Once a specimen 292 mm long was found. Emperor scorpion Tropical emperor scorpion Pandinus imperator found in West Africa, also reaches a length of 180 mm. The length of one male from Sierra Leone is 229 mm.
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The smallest scorpion.
There are several species that can be classified as among the smallest. One of them is the species Microtityus waeringi, the adult of which reaches a size of 12 mm.
The most sociable scorpion
Young individuals of the species Pandinus imperator may remain in their family even after reaching maturity. Different families often cooperate in order to get the victim. These are the friendliest arachnids.
Lifespan
Among arachnids, scorpions are rightfully considered long-lived, since their life expectancy exceeds one season and ranges from 2 to 6 years. Life expectancy is influenced by many factors - air temperature, abundance of food, natural enemies, which scorpions abound. Tropical scorpions develop faster than their counterparts from temperate regions. Most scorpions mature by 1 - 3 years. The maximum life expectancy among scorpions is 8 years.
Exotic animal lovers keep scorpions at home. Most often it is the imperial scorpion Pandinus imperator. This species matures in the third year of life, and in the conditions of maintenance can reach 6 years of age. However, it should be borne in mind that you can purchase an already adult scorpion that has already lived half its life. If a scorpion lives for two years, it can be considered good luck.
Scorpions glow in ultraviolet rays.
Scorpions glow under ultraviolet light. Under ultraviolet light, scorpions fluoresce in green. When bright sunlight the shell of the scorpion also casts green. The reason for this phenomenon is a thin layer organic matter hyaline on the cuticle of a scorpion, chemical composition which has not yet been identified. The scorpion does not fluoresce after molting. As the new cuticle hardens, the property of fluorescence also appears. It is possible that fluorescence occurs as a result of the action of secretory glands or as the cuticle matures.
The alcohol in which the remains of scorpions are stored also acquires the ability to fluoresce.
The hyaline layer of the cuticle has great strength. It is found on the remains of fossil species, and the hyaline layer remains on stony rocks even when other parts of the cuticle are destroyed. But even after thousands of millions of years, the hyaline layer continues to fluoresce.
The reason why scorpions should fluoresce has not been established. Some scientists believe that in this way they identify each other at night. After all, scorpions are nocturnal animals.
The greenish glow at night makes the scorpions vulnerable to hunters. All that the scorpion fishermen need is a source of ultraviolet radiation, in the light of which they search the fields where scorpions live.
Antifreeze in the blood
The blood of snow scorpions contains antifreeze, which is why they can withstand temperatures down to minus 6 degrees Celsius. However, if such a scorpion is taken in hand, it will die.
Slowdown of metabolism
When there is not enough food, scorpions slow down their metabolism. Surprisingly, these arthropods hardly drink. They take water from food. However, like other substances necessary for life. Unbelievable but true: 70% of the food that scorpions eat replenishes their body tissues. At the same time, they are real ascetics and can not eat for a whole year. One moth can feed a scorpion for several months. In addition, freezing also does not particularly harm them, frozen scorpions thaw in the sun and continue to live. In addition, scorpions can spend up to two days under water without breathing without much harm.
Radiation resistance
When atomic weapons were blasted in the Sahara in the past, only scorpions survived in the immediate vicinity - they withstood 134,000 roentgens. In a word, these are extremely stable creatures.
How scorpions sting.
The sting is required by scorpions for many purposes. First, it makes excellent offensive weapons and helps with prey hunting. The scorpion grabs the victim with its tentacles and squeezes it tightly, but it does not stop resisting. In order for it to stop moving and be ready for ingestion, it must be immobilized. If the prey cannot simply be squeezed by its tentacles, the scorpion stings it one or more times. Since the tentacles of the scorpion are weak, it relies more on poison - with its help, the scorpion hits prey as large as itself.
Poison is an indispensable weapon in defense. It instantly strikes large spiders, stinging between the eyes. Some species of lizards (Sceloporous) are insensitive to scorpion venom. Vertebrates are especially sensitive to scorpion venom. Scorpions, whose venom kills vertebrates, do not use their bodies as food.
The third appointment of the sting opens during the mating season. The male scorpion extends its sting in front of the female, which determines its belonging to the species by this sign. In some species (for example, Hadogenes), the sting takes precedence as an identifying feature. This species has adapted to life in rocks, and the abdomen has become flat during evolution. The male differs from the female in a strongly elongated body, and the size does not allow him to use the sting as a weapon, because the tail is not able to carry the sting in front of the scorpion. Thus, a frontal attack for the male is impossible. But he has quite powerful claws and tentacles that help him out when hunting insects. In turn, the female in the course of evolution has retained the usual outlines of the body and is able to hunt with the help of a sting. The sting of this species of scorpion serves as identification mark for a mating partner.
Of the 1500 species, only about 25 are deadly to large vertebrates and humans. The bite of most small scorpions is extremely painful for humans, but not fatal. It can cause fever, swelling, redness, and numbness of the skin, but these symptoms pass fairly quickly. A serious threat to a person who is nearby is the Palestinian scorpion, a cocktail of toxins in its sting that can almost certainly lead to fever, paralysis and death. Although it is believed that the formidable fame of scorpions is overstated, in Mexico this is hardly considered. In 1946 alone, scorpions sent 1933 people to the other world there. And today, between 800 and 1,000 people become their victims in Mexico every year. If you are "lucky enough" to meet a scorpion, first of all, pay attention to the claws and sting. They ate large claws, and a small sting - the scorpion is not very poisonous, if vice versa - it is extremely dangerous. Either way, don't touch it. It is also believed that the hotter the climate in the habitat of scorpions, the more poisonous they are.
ancient gods
Throughout the history of mankind, scorpions have had a special relationship. They became part of the mythology, mentioned in the Egyptian "Book of the Dead", the Bible and the Koran. The scorpion was also a sacred animal Egyptian goddess Selket, daughter of Ra, patroness of the dead. In the images Selket is depicted either with a scorpion tail or with a scorpion on his head.
