Even the largest scorpion attacks a person only in emergency cases in order to protect himself or his offspring. It can attack if it is frightened or its housing is destroyed. In the event of an inevitable conflict, make some noise and the scorpion will not attack. He does not associate with anyone who is bigger than him.
Challengers for the record
The imperial scorpion is by far the largest. Females are slightly larger than males, they can weigh up to 50 g. Their male relatives rarely gain more than 30 g of weight. In length, an adult reaches an average of 20 cm.
Due to their large size and spectacular appearance, these arthropods are frequent inhabitants of terrariums.
Another contender for the role of the main giant, quite a bit inferior to the clear leader, is Heterometrus swammerdami. Typically, the body length does not exceed 17 cm, but during the Second World War, a unique individual belonging to this species was discovered. The length of the find exceeded 29 cm, and the weight reached 56 grams.
Appearance
The appearance of the scorpion is quite unusual: the cephalothorax, a long body, six pairs of limbs and a tail ending with a needle sticking up, at the end of which there are a couple of holes of poisonous glands. A tool for capturing food is a pair of impressive claws. The scorpion uses the paired limbs located near the mouth as a jaw to soften the food it has extracted.
The scorpion, whose photo you will see in this article, is provided with four pairs of limbs attached to the abdomen that are comfortable with relatively high speed movement.
This animal injects its poison into the prey with a sharp needle. From enemies that could harm him, he is reliably protected by a durable chitinous shell.
Hunting Methods
Scorpio is known as a predator. But few people know about the methods of hunting the largest scorpion. Despite the presence of a large number of eyes (in different species from 6 to 12), their vision is not very good.
Scorpions in nature hunt at night, which is what confused specialists. With the advent of darkness, the animal gets out of its shelter and freezes. In a stationary state, he can be for a long time, waiting until the victim approaches him at a certain distance. When potential food enters the attack zone, the scorpion lunges quickly and pinches the victim with claws.
Scientists were very interested in the way of hunting, but they could not understand how the scorpion recognizes the direction of the victim and the distance to it. For the experiment, a special testing ground with sand was built. After observing for some time, scientists came to the conclusion that a scorpion can orient itself in the direction of prey movement at a distance of up to 30, and performs an accurate attack at a distance of up to 10 centimeters. Only one thing remained unclear how he did it.
The experiments with the eyesight of a scorpion were unsuccessful. The arthropod was painted over with colorless varnish, but this did not affect its behavior. It turns out that small hairs grow on the legs of the scorpion, which serve as a kind of locator. With their help, he catches the slightest vibration of the sand and accurately determines the place where the victim is. The arrangement of the legs, which build an almost regular circle, also plays a significant role.
Diet
Scorpions eat only live food. They prey on cockroaches, grasshoppers, spiders. But the largest scorpions often attack mice and medium-sized lizards. Potential prey, which exceeds its size, is not attacked, but takes a defensive stance. Determines how much production is based on vibrations of air and small particles under the paws.
Among all scorpions, including the largest ones, there are cases of cannibalism, when a stronger and larger individual devours a smaller representative of the species.
The digestive system of scorpions is built in a special way. Due to this, they do not need to eat daily, they take food about twice a week. The required amount of moisture is obtained by eating their victims.
Photos of scorpions give a clear idea that these are strong and dexterous animals. They are also very hardy. They can live without food for a rather long life, not very demanding on food. There have been cases when these arthropods did not eat for more than 1.5 years.
The need for water depends on the species and habitat. For example, the imperial scorpion living in the deserts of Africa, moisture is needed in very small quantities. And to a heterometrus, his main rival for the title of the largest representative of the class, living in tropical forests, it is extremely difficult without her.
Scorpion breeding
Males, ready to mate, search for a soul mate at night, leaving behind a trace of a fragrant substance with a smell that attracts the female. The male himself follows the trail that the female left, recognizing it with the help of villi on the organs of touch below the body. When the two halves meet, the male goes to the female with a sting raised up, which is a signal of intentions to mate. All this is necessary so that the female does not confuse the groom with her prey. But if the female is not ready to mate or is very hungry, despite all the signs of the male, she will simply eat it.
The mating process is led by a male. The claw-linked partners begin to move back and forth, dancing the mating dance. This can go on for hours in a row. When a suitable place is found, the male selects a spermatophore, then stretches the female over this place so that her genital opening is above his secretions.
The gestational age of the female lasts up to 1 year, and the cubs are usually born in an amount of 20 to 60. During the week, the female carries helpless babies on her back. They become independent in 10 days, after the first molt. Puberty occurs after 2 years.
Life span
The largest scorpion among arachnids rightfully bears the title of long-liver. Imperial scorpions live on average up to 10 years. Many factors affect life expectancy - sufficient food, a considerable number of enemies, and air temperature.
Both types of the largest scorpions are suitable for home maintenance. They can not only live for a long time, but also breed in captivity.
Where do the giant scorpions live?
Scorpios prefer life in warmer areas with hot climates. The largest scorpions in the world, imperial, are distributed throughout Africa. And those who want to look at the heterometrus will have to go to the moist forests of Sri Lanka.
Both species of the largest scorpions are active only at night. With the arrival of dawn, they hide under the stones, in the recesses of the soil, under the forest litter, in the bark of trees, in the sand.
Interesting Facts
The remains of the largest scorpion on Earth were discovered in Scotland. The size of the fossil was impressive: the length of the crustacean was more than human growth and reached about 2 meters, and the width was 1 meter. The largest scorpion lived about 330 million years ago, and was not a predator, but only fed on grass. Inhabited in water.
Among many species of scorpions are non-toxic. This can be found by examining the forelimbs. Scorpions, which are not dangerous, have claws of impressive size, and owners of small claws are usually poisonous and can cause harm. Both species, claiming to be the largest, are poisonous, but the amount of toxin for humans is too small. However, several cases have been reported when the bites of a heterometrus or imperial scorpion caused malaise and local irritation around the wound.