SCORPIONS 



413 



Order i. Scorpionid^ 



Scorpions are elongated Arachnoids, restricted to warm 

 countries, lurking under stones or in holes during the day, 

 but active at night. The Scorpio afer of the East Indies 

 attains a length of 6 inches, but most are much smaller. 

 They feed on insects, spiders, and other small animals. 

 The " tail," with the venomous 

 sting at its tip, is usually curved 

 over the anterior part of the 

 body, and can reach forward to 

 kill the prey caught by the an- 

 terior appendages, or can be 

 suddenly straightened to strike 

 backwards. When man is stung, 

 the poison seems to act chiefly 

 on the red blood corpuscles, and, 

 though never or very rarely fatal, 

 may cause much pain. It has 

 been said that scorpions commit 

 suicide when surrounded by fire 

 or otherwise fatally threatened, 

 but it has been answered that 

 they do not sting themselves, 

 that they could not if they would, 

 and that, even if they could, 

 the poison would have no effect ! Fiq. 229. — Scorpion, ventral 



The body is divided into — surface. 



(l) a CephalothoraX or " pro- ch., Chelicerae; pp., pedipalps; 0., 

 ^ ' ,s ^r • L genital operculum; p., pectines; 



soma 01 six segments, whose s., stigma of a lung-bookon the 



terga fuse into a carapace, and ^g,™' ''■''''''^ or post-anai 

 (2) an abdomen, which includes 



abroad seven-segmented " mesosoma," and a narrow five- 

 segmented " metasoma." At the end of the latter there is 

 a post-anal curved spine or " telson," containing a paired, 

 compressible poison gland opening at the sharp tip. There 

 is a strong cuticle of chitin, and also an interesting internal 

 piece of skeleton (the endosternite), partly chitinoid, but also 

 resembling fibro-cartilage, which lies in the cephalothorax 

 above the nerve-cord, and serves for the insertion of 

 muscles. 



