Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 158, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1916 — WORSE THAN BEES [ARTICLE]

WORSE THAN BEES

SCORPION IS A PEST OF TH* TROPICAL REGIONS. Its Sting Much Dreaded, Though Seldom Fatal—Creature Has Long Boon Known in the History of the World. The scorpion is a post of the tropical regions. It never lives in our latitude. Its resemblance to the spiders and the crustaceans is quite apparent. While naturalists place the scorpions ' in the class Arachnids, the class to which the spiders belong, their super-, flclal appearance reminds one of the class Crustacea, the class to which the crabs and lobsters belong. The big pincers, especially, by which they seize and hold their prey, give to the scorpions the aspect of the crabs and lobsters. The poison sting of the scorpion is located at the tip of the abdomen and he appears to be fully conscious of his powerful Weapon, R. N. Davis, curator of the Everhart museum, writes in Scranton Republican. When running along the ground he holds the sting aloft as if to prevent injury to it by striking it against the ground. When it seizes its prey with its pincers it searches with the tip of its abdomen for a soft spot in the body of its prey and there inserts the poison stinger. If the animal is of considerable size it may sting it more than once. Much of its food, such as the eggs of Insects and spiders, is obtained without any use of the stinger. The stinger is also used by him as a weapon of defense against larger animals. In tropical regions the sting of the scorpion is dreaded as much as we dread the bite of the rattler. Although the scorpion’s sting is not so severe as the bite of a rattlesnake, it is much worse than the sting of the bee. Fatal stings by the scorpion are exceedingly rare. I Am reminded of the scorpions at this time on account of receiving recently at the museum one of the large black scorpions from Africa. In Africa and India are found the largest of all the scorpions. This African scorpion is preserved in alcohol and was presented to the museum by Mrs. EL J. Lewis, she having received it from Mrs. John Job of Newark, N. J. There are several other scorpions in the museum, but none of them approach this specimen in size. Scorpions appeared quite early in the history of the earth, for well-pre-served remains of them have been found in the upper Silurian in both Europe and America. They are found, too, in the carboniferous and these ancient forms are very similar to the living species. This is unusual in land animals. Most land animals show great changes from one geological age to the next. Marine animals, especially those of the deeper waters, change very slowly, but land animals change with comparative rapidity. In the deeper waters the temperature is almost constant and the animal is always wet On the land the temperature; varies much in different places and in any place the temperature changes with the day and season. The amount of moisture from time to time varies greatly. This environment of the land animals tends to produce rapid changes and species die out and new species develop. The scorpions, however, seem to be somewhat exceptional, for the living species do Hot differ much from those! living away back in paleozoic time.' Possibly the nocturnal habits of these animals have had something to do with the slight changes the group has undergone.