Zentangle Stylized scorpions within a triangle frame, framed by watercolour droplets. Scorpion Mascot Logo Design Vectors, featuring Modern Illustration Concept Style, suitable for badges, emblems, and T-shirt prints.
The gallery is based on the original photos as well as photos provided by scorpion enthusiasts worldwide. The copyright for photos on The Scorpion Files belongs to the individual named along with the species name. Several Rhopalurus species were moved either into Heteroctenus genus or were synonymized.
One of the most toxic or potentially harmful species, particularly for infants, small children, and elderly people in the U.S., is Centruroides exilicauda, or the Bark Scorpion. In the United States, bark scorpions, found mostly in the southwestern desert, are the only scorpion species that has venom powerful enough to produce serious symptoms. Worldwide, only around 30 out of an estimated 1,500 scorpion species make poisons that are poisonous enough to cause death.
Very few deaths from scorpion stings have been reported in the U.S. The elderly and the very young are most likely to die of venomous scorpion stings that go untreated.
Another possible complication from stings with scorpions, although uncommon, is severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis). While most scorpions have venom powerful enough only to kill small creatures, there are about 30-40 species that have a sting powerful enough to kill humans. Scorpions do not just use their sting to kill prey: they also use it as protection from predators, like snakes, lizards, and birds.
Scorpions use a pair of gripping thorns to hold down and kill their prey, or prevent themselves from being eaten. Several species of scorpion are “sit-and-wait” predators, involving waiting for prey near or in the mouths of their burrows. Most scorpion species are either nocturnal or crepuscular, finding daytime refuges in burrows, crevices in rocks, and in the bark of trees.
In some species, especially those of the Buthidae, individuals can congregate at a single refuge; tree-branch scorpions can congregate as many as 30 individuals. Bark scorpions live beneath rocks, logs, and the bark of trees — thus, the name.
Striped Bark Scorpions are distinguished, among others, by the dark triangle that sits atop their heads. The scorpion has one eye pair halfway down the rear, and another two to five pairs of eyes down the front edges of the body.
Scorpions have eight legs, a pair of lobster-like pinchers, and a tail that bends upward. Scorpions resemble tiny lobsters, and they were probably the first animals to migrate hundreds of millions of years ago from the seas to land. Whether the early scorpions were sea-bound or terrestrial has been disputed, although they had a squamulose like the current terrestrial species.
Scorpions mainly hunt insects and other invertebrates, but a few species do kill vertebrates. Scorpions generally eat insects (although some also eat spiders, lizards, and small rodents), and each species has a specific venom type that works well against its chosen prey. Unlike most non-mammalian animals, scorpions are viviparous, giving birth to living young rather than egg-laying.
Mating in scorpions is preceded by an elaborate, distinctive courtship initiated by a male. During this period, a young scorpion is helpless and uses up the reserves of food within its body, at the same time receiving water that is respirated from its mothers cuticle and taken by itself. Once released, an immature scorpion climbs up the mothers back, where they stay for 1-50 days.
The young scorpions shed their delicate embryonic venomous coverings to be fully functional as they assert independence. When threatened, the scorpion lifts up their claws and tail into defensive positions. Since classical times, a scorpion, with its powerful stinger, has been used to give names to weapons.
Such survival skills have allowed scorpions to survive some of the harshest environments on earth. Homes built in barren or desert regions often contain scorpions. You are most likely to come across the most dangerous scorpions when traveling to certain parts of the world.
Scorpions will shine under black lights, so you may want to use one in the evenings to check around. While they cannot make clear images, scorpions central eyes are some of the most sensitive to light in the animal kingdom, particularly under low-light conditions, and they allow nocturnal species to navigate by using starlight at night. Control can include using insecticides like pyrethroids, or harvesting scorpions manually using UV lights.