A scorpion is an arachnid, eight-legged and related to the spiders, but it looks more like a crayfish with a skinny tail. It has a pair of appendages extending from each side of the mouth and ending in powerful pincers. Those are called pedipalpi because on spiders and other arachnids they resemble legs, but on scorpions they resemble the claws of a crayfish. At the end of it is a curved, pointed stinger with an enlarged base containing a pair of poison glands. When attacking, a scorpion arches its tail over the back and plunges it forward to sting.
Scorpions lead lonesome lives.
The males, more slender and with longer tails, are often killed and devoured by the females after mating. The fertilized eggs develop inside the mother and the young are born alive. Then they climb upon her back and, with only her pedipalpi, legs and tail visible, she carries them around but does not feed them. They exist upon egg yolk in their mid-gut. They molt their shells as they grow and soon after the first molt, resembling an adult but many times smaller, they drop off and each little cannibal goes his or her own way.