Omaha daily bee., 1885-04-03
THE HABIEs OF THE SCORPION
An Insect which Kills the Mother
Before Going Into the World.

Land and Water,
A few years ago, while In the island of
Jamaica, 1t was my fortunate chance to
have an opportunity of observing some
very curious facts in connection with
genus of the arachuida class, commonly
known as the scorpion, and the curious
traits of character In these insects. Turn
Ing over some old papers in my office one
day, | suddenly came upon a large black
scorpion, who promptly tried to beat a
precipitate retreat. Having read or
heard some rhere that if you blow on a
scorpion he will not move. / tried the
experiment, and was greatly astonished
to find that it had the desired effect. The
scorpion stopped instantly, fattened
himself close to the paper on which he
had been running, and had all the ap-
p~earance of "holding on" for dear life.
While I continued to blow aver lightly
he refused to move, though l pushed him
with a pencil and shook the paper to
whcih he chung SO tenaciously. Directly
l ceared blowing he advanced cautiously,
only to stop again at the slightest breath.
| was thus able to secure him In a glass
tumbler which happened to be within
reach, and then determined to try an
other experiment as to the suicidal ten
denotes which l had heard runs In the
veins of the pedipalpl family.
On the stone floor of the kitchen at.
tached to my office l arranged a circle of
the burning sticks about three yards In
circumference, the sticks being 30 placed
that though there We're no means of exit
through the fire, 1t was not ~intense, but
small and quite bearable as regards heat
within a few inches, 80 that the central
part of the circle was perfectly cool. Into
this centre l accordingly dropped my
scorpion, who, on reaching terra tirma,
darted off in a great hurry, only to be
quickly brought to a halt on reaching
within q few inches of the periphery of
the circle. After a short pause of refec-
ton, he deviatsd to the right, and ran
once completely around the circle as near
to the fire sticks as 1t was prudent to ven
ture. This he did three times, often ap-
preaching the burning sticks quite closely
In his anxious endeavors to escspe. In
about a quarter of an hour, finding that
his efforts were useless, he retired almost
into the exact centre of the circle, and
there In a tragic manner raised his tall
till the string or spur was close to his
head, gave himself two deliberate prods
In the back of the neck, and thus mtsera-
bly, persisted by his own hand. AS |
placed the body of the suicide in a bottle
of spirits, | almost regretted that l had
not let him escape before he had resorted
to such an extreme measure.
My last experience is even more curl
Gus then the preceding, as it shows a re-
markable provision of nature that is al
most incredible. All l have ever read
on the subject is contained In the follow
ing words:
"The young scorpions are produced at
various intervals, and are carried by the
parent for several days upon her back,
during which time she never leaves her
retreat"
1 was playiug a game of billiards in a
small village IN the Blue mountains;
there was ne ceiling to the room, the roof
being covered, as is the universal custom
In jana ca, withcedar wood shingles. My
opponent was smoking a large pipe, and
suddenly, just as | was about to make a
stroke, what | thought was the contents
of my friends pipe fell on the table close
to the ball at which | was aiming. In.
srinctlvely l was on the point of brush
ing 1t off with my hand, when, to my
amszement, / saw 1t was q moving mass,
| which on clorer inspection turned out to
be a very large female specimen of a scor.
pion, from which ran away In every d.
rection a number of perfectly formed lit
tie scorpions about a quarter of an inch
in length. The mother scorpion lay
dying upon the billiard cloth, and soon
ended her feeble struggles, the whole of
her back being eaten out by her W off
spring, of which, as they could not escape
over the raised edge of the BILLIARD table,
we killed the astonishing number of
~thirty.eight. They had not only been
carried by their parent, " but they had
lived on her, cleaning out her body from
the shell of her back, 10 that she looked
like an inverted cooked crab from which
the edible portions have been removed.
She had clung to her retreat In the shin
gled Roof until near the approach of
death, when she had fallen aud given us
this curious spectacle. l was told by
the attendant that the young scorpions
always live thus at the expense Of their
mothers life, and that by the time her
strength i, exhausted the horrld offspring
are ready to shift for Themselves.