230 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
of Mexico, and furnishes commerce with its most valuable, because brightest, 
carmines and scarlets in which the finest goods are dyed. 
The Shell Mite (.A tax ypsilophorus) is so named from the marking of 
its back, which resembles the Greek letter upsilon. 
The Scorpion. In spite of its variety of color—gray, white, yellow, 
brown, green, black, ash, claret, etc., 
—the scorpion is feared rather than 
admired. Though the scorpion flourishes 
in Italy and France, and is not un¬ 
known in our Southern States, yet it 
much more abounds in Africa, the East, 
and in South America. Its irascibility 
and combativeness are extreme; it is 
like many insects, a cannibal, and is 
perfectly willing to feast without scru¬ 
ple upon its own offspring. In ex¬ 
treme cases it will, like the stoical 
waltz spider. Roman, commit suicide by stinging 
itself to death. 
The body is elongated, the abdomen of six equal segments, forming a 
tail, whose tip is exactly the “ tip ” that the stranger does not care to receive. 
Respiration takes place through four stigmata, or openings, connecting with 
two pairs of pulmonary sacs. The young are developed within the mother, 
and after birth are car¬ 
ried about by her in the 
manner of Indian pap- 
pooses. Some species 
have upon the legs rasps, 
which serve as organs 
for producing sound. 
The poison gland com¬ 
municates with the sting¬ 
er ; the sting, though 
not fatal to man, is ex¬ 
ceedingly dangerous. 
Ammonia applied extern¬ 
ally and internally is the 
most satisfactory remedy. 
The scorpions are ex¬ 
amples of motherly affec¬ 
tion, tenderness and de¬ 
voted care; they take 
special pains to educate 
the young at home. cylindrical spider, natural size. 
The scorpion is the 
land octopus, and the wonderful tales told by Jules Verne and Victor 
Hugo may be transferred to the legendary history of this spider (for spider 
it is). Its appearance is repulsive, impish, devilish. Roaming abroad in 
the darkness, they penetrate everywhere—no pillow too soft to invite them; 
