Poisonous Animals of tiik Dkskkt 



oS7 



is so. No poison glands have been found, and observers have al- 

 lowed themselves to be bitten by solpugids without suffering any- 

 thing worse than a passing pain from the wound." (Zoologists 

 know these animals as solpiigids). 



SCORPIONS 



Other forms closely related to the spiders are the scorpions 

 (v^panish. alacran), so commonly known in Arizona as hardly to 

 need any description or illustration. (Fig. 9). They are common 



in the warm southwestern 

 regions, though unknown in 

 the north. A considerable num- 

 ber of species occur in this area 

 of the United States, and Com- 

 stock lists seven kinds with 

 ranges which indicate that they 

 probably belong to our fauna. 

 A full study of them may dis- 

 close more than seven. It may 

 be emphasized that the scorpion 

 does not bite, having no mouth 

 p-cwts capable of inflicting in- 

 jury on the human body, nor 

 does it do injury by means of 



Fig. 9.— Scorpion.s, one-half life size. The i t S "pinCCrs." The SCOrpion 

 smaller one is not the young of the larger. stingS by throwing the slender 

 but is a matui-e specimen of its kind. . r .'i 11 / n 1 



part of the abdomen (so-called 

 tail) up and forward over the back and striking forcibly with it, 

 the curved spine or sting being driven with sufficient force to make 

 the wound. Having observe them paralyze insect prey with a 

 more deliberate working in by continued pushing of the sting, we 

 conclude that it may i)enetrate the human skin in the same way, 

 under circumstances that do not permit of its striking, as when 

 caught in a shoe by the foot. There is a well developed poison 

 gland in the bulbous base of the sting. 



In the whole literature on scorpions, which belong to all hot 

 regions of the world, will be found many statements which are 

 apparently conflicting regarding their dangerous or poisonous char- 

 acter. An analysis of these statements indicates that the sting of 

 some of the largest species in other countries than our own may 

 be dangerous, even to adults, and accounts of numerous deaths of 

 children in Mexico are given. But some of these kinds are many 



