SCORPIONS 75 



captivity feeds readily on cockroaches, eating at least one per week 

 during the summer months, although they do not touch hard 

 beetles such as Blaps spp. and Akis spinosa unless starved 

 (Cloudsley-Thompson, 1955a). 



More segmental appendages have been brought into service as 

 mouth parts in scorpions than in other Arachnids. There is the 

 usual association of the chelicerae, labrum and pedipalp coxae, 

 and in addition the under lip is composed of endite lobes of the 

 coxae of both the first and second pairs of legs. The prey is picked 

 to pieces by alternate movements of the chelicerae and the juices 

 and soft tissues are drawn into the tiny mouth by the pumping 

 action of the pharynx. In consequence feeding is slow and takes 

 several hours. 



The food of scorpions consists chiefly of spiders, harvestmen, 

 flies, cockroaches, grasshoppers, crickets, mantids, butterflies, ants, 

 beetles (adult and larvae), myriapods and even small mice. Accord- 

 ing to Strahnke (1945) Hadrurus sp. will eat readily of soft- 

 bodied insects but rejects woodlice and harvestmen (when hungry 

 they will even tackle hard beetles and small lizards), whereas 

 Euscorpius germanus eats bluebottles, flies, small cockroaches, wood- 

 lice, spiders and centipedes (Pocock, 1893). 



Schultze (1927) found that various species of Blattidae seemed 

 to be favoured by Palamnaeus longimanus but that crickets, earwigs 

 and certain larvae of Coleoptera were also taken at times. This 

 species is usually found in old or virgin forest under loose bark of 

 dead standing trees, under decaying trunks of trees and logs, or in 

 cavities of rotten stumps located in the jungle, mostly in rather 

 humid and damp places, where such insects abound. 



According to Vachon (1953) it is not entirely clear how the scor- 

 pion first detects its prey. The eyes are too crude to be of much 

 assistance and in any case the scorpion is a nocturnal animal, for 

 which visual impressions can be of no great significance. Other 

 sense organs must therefore be concerned, notably the sensory 

 hairs or trichobothria found only on the pedipalps. 'These are 

 richly supplied with nerves, and can detect minute air currents 

 such as those caused by movements of the prey. They are, in fact 

 like tiny receiving sets, pointing in all directions and spread out 

 along the pedipalpi, which when extended act as huge antennae.' 



