148 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



constitutional derangements, the effects lasting 

 for several days. When about to strike, the 

 Scorpion suddenly straightens its tail and brings 

 the point downwards with great swiftness. If 

 cornered, the Scorpion will generally show 

 fight, jerking his tail and brandishing his claw- 

 like pedipalps in a very threatening manner. 

 Recent carefully conducted experiments have 

 proved conclusively the incorrectness of the 

 old statement that a Scorpion surrounded by a 

 ring of fire would, recognizing the terrible fate 

 about to overtake it, commit suicide by stinging 

 itself on the head. When exposed to great 

 heat, the Scorpion becomes greatly excited and 

 agitated, jerking its tail about rapidly, showing 

 every sign of extreme alarm and discomfort, and 

 it is iprobably from these rapid movements that 

 the popular idea of the creature committing 

 suicide originated. Although of unlovely appear- 

 ance, the female Scorpion is eagerly sought by 

 the smaller males, who carry on their courtship 

 with some amount of trepidation, for the lady 

 has an uncertain temper, and may vent her 

 wrath upon a too ardent wooer, even to the 

 killing and subsequent sucking of his blood. 

 Nevertheless, she is a model mother, watching 

 over her offspring with the greatest solicitude. 



We shall find this same uncertain temper 

 during courtship, and the subsequent maternal 

 devotion, strongly developed in the Spiders. 

 Indeed, for the onlooker, there are few more 

 curious or laughable sights than the courtship 

 of the common Garden Spider, though it is no 

 laughing matter for the amorous swain. The 



