364 PHYLUM ARTHROPODA. 
Order 1. SCORPIONIDE 
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 smail 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 anterior 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 
Fic. 191.—Scorpion. no effect! 
ch. Chelicere; Af. pedipalps; 0, The body is divided into— 
genital operculum; /., pectines; 
Ss. stigma of a lung-book on the (1) a cephalothorax or “ pro- 
seinen ey See AP BS soma’ of six gepments, Whose 
terga fuse into a carapace, 
and (2) an abdomen, which includes a broad 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 
