scorpion

The scorpion belongs to an ancient group of animals. Scorpions were perhaps the first arachnids to adapt to life on land, some 400 million years ago. There are about 800 species known today.

Any arachnid of the order Scorpiones, common in the tropics and subtropics. Scorpions have four pairs of walking legs, large pincers, and long tails ending in upcurved poisonous stings, though the venom is not usually fatal to a healthy adult human. Some species reach 25 cm/10 in. There are about 600 different species.

They are nocturnal in habit, hiding during the day beneath stones and under the loose bark of trees. The females are viviparous (producing live young), the eggs being hatched in the enlarged oviducts. Scorpions sometimes prey on each other, but their main food is the woodlouse. They seize their prey with their powerful claws or palpi. They are also able to survive for a long time without eating; one scorpion managed to survive for 17 months on a single housefly.

A new species of cave-dwelling scorpion was found 1995 in Northern Territory, Australia. Although its body measures 2.5 cm/1 in, its claws are 4 cm/1.5 in long, hence its name Liocheles longimanus (‘big hand’).