LITERARY NOTICES. 



Habits of Scorpions.^ 



Observations on Parabuthus capenus and Euscorpius carpatihicus 

 in captivity. The observations of Prof. Lankester on Euscorpius are 

 confirmed and considerably amplified. The habits of Parabuthus 

 have never before been recorded. 



" All scorpions appear to be carnivorus, and there seems to be 

 little doubt that they live principally upon insects or other articulated 

 animals. My specimens of Euscorpius would eat blue-bottles and 

 small flies, small cockroaches (£". gennanicus), wood-lice, small spi- 

 ders and centipedes {Lithobius and Geophiliis). The Parabuthus were 

 fed principally upon the common house-cockroach and upon blue-bot- 

 tles." "Although usually trusting to their heels for escape, cock- 

 roaches occasionally resort to a method of self-defense which is suf- 

 ficiently curious to be described. Advancing upon an adversary rear 

 end formost, and at the same time wagging from side to side this re- 

 gion of the body, they deliver vigorous backward kicks with their 

 spiny hind legs. This novel and humiliating mode of fighting, al- 

 though not likely to prevail long against jaws and stings, is sufficient, 

 nevertheless, to gain sometimes for the insect a temporary reprieve. 

 I have indeed seen a fine female Madeira tarantula spider retreat in 

 discomfiture before a big cockroach of the same sex, which assaulted 

 her in the way described. 



" As soon as a cockroach is seized the use of the scorpion's tail 

 is seen ; for this organ is brought rapidly over the latter's back, and 

 the point of the sting is thrust into the insect. The poison instilled 

 into the wound thus made, although not causing immediate death, 

 has a paralyzing effect upon the muscles, and quickly deprives the 

 insect of struggling powers, and consequently of all chance of es- 

 cape. If the insect, however, is a small one, one in fact that can be 

 easily held in the pincers and eaten without trouble while alive, a 

 scorpion does not always waste poison upon it. Thus I have seen a 

 Parabuthus seize a blue-bottle fly, transfer it straight to its mandibles, 

 and pick it to pieces with them when still kicking." " Unlike spi- 



'PococK, R. J. Notes upon the Habits of Some Living Scorpions. Na- 

 ture^ Vol. XLVIII, pp. 104-107, June, 1893. 



