Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-09-10
THE SCORPIONS OF MEXICO.
Habits of a Common Pest-Enects of the
sting-A Happy Family.

Habits of Common Pest-Enects of the
sting-A Happy Family.
One of the most common pests in
Mexico are the alcarans, or scorpions,
for during certain seasons of the year
they are as numerous as flies around a
sugar house. They are within the cracks
of the wall, between the bricks of tiles
of the floor, hiding inside your gar
ments, darting everywhere with incon-
ceivable rapidity, their tails (the "busi-
ness end" which holds the sting ready
to fly up with dangerous effect upon the
slightest provocation. Turn up corner
of the rug or tablespread, and you dis
turb flourshing colony of them; shake
your shoes in the morning, and out they
flop; throw your bath sponge into the
water and half a dozen of them dart
out of its cool depths into which they
had wriggled for a siesta; in short,
every article you touch must be treated
like a dose of medicine-"to be well
shaken before taken"
The average scorpion is mahogany
hued, and about two inches long; but l
have seen them as long as five inches.
The small, yellowish variety are consid-
cred most dangerous, and their bite is
most apprehended at midday. In Du-
range they are black and so alarmingly
numerous-having been allowed to
breed for centuries in the deserted mines
that the government offers a reward
per head Tor, rather, per taiD to whoever
will kill them. Their sting is seldom
fatal but is more or less severe accord
ing to the state of the system. Victims
have been been known to remain for
days in commissions, foaming at the
mouth, with stomach swelled as in
dropsy; while others do not suffer much
more than from a bee sting. The COM
mon remedies are brandy, taken in sutfi-
Gent quantities to stupefy the patient,
ammonia, administered both externally
and internally, boiled silk and guaia-
cum. 1t is also of use to press large
key, or other tube, on the wound to
force out part of the poison.
AS most of my readers are aware, this
species of insect-a genus of Arachnida,
of the order Pulmonaria-are distin-
guished from other spiders by having
the abdomen articulated, with a sharp,
curved spur at the extremity beneath
which are two pores from which the
venom flows, supplied by two poison
glands at the base of the segment. The
anterior pair of feet, or palpi, are modi-
fled into pincers or claws, like those of
the lobster, by which it seizes its prey,
while the other feet resemble those of
ordinary spiders. Naturalists divide the
genus into sub-genera, according to the
number of their eyes, whether six, eight
or twelve. They eat the eggs of spiders
and also feed ON beetles and other insects,
piercing the prey with their stingers
again and again before beginning the
meal. When alarmed or irritated a
scorpion SHOWS fight" Immediately, run
ming about and waving his sting in all
directions, for attack or defence, evil
IDENTIFY aware of its power.
The young scorpions are produced at
astonishingly frequent intervals, the
mother displaying far greater regard for
her offspring than their vicious nature
seems to justify. During their brief in
fancy she carries them about clinging
in great numbers to her ba ok, limbs and
tail, never leaving her retreat for mo-
ment, unless, overburdened by their
weight, her hold relaxes from the wall
and down falls the whole happy family
in wad. The ungrateful children gen.
orally reward the maternal devotion by
destroying the mother as soon as they
are old enough, tearing her piecemeal
with the greatest ferocity.
Betsy and | amuse ourselves by study
ing their habits, and have become ex-
pert in catching them by the tail with
lassos of thread, afterward suspending
them in bottles of alcohol to send to mi
croscopically inclined friends Happen.
ing to be out of alcohol one day, we put
a captured scorpion into an empty bot
tie. Remembering it week later, we
went to look, when 10! where one had
been were now fifty-seven; but whether
it was only the mother and her children,
or if the original scorpion had arrived al
the dignity of a greatgrandparent in
that length of time, was food for con.
lecture. Happily this rapidity of in.
crease is offset by their bitter enmity
toward all others of their kind, and the
perpetual warfare they wage upon one
another thins their ranks more than any
other cause. Scorpions are said to har-
Dor an especial spite against brunettes
and to leave blonde people comparatively
unmolested. The Indians eat them,
after pulling out the sting-a -crunchy'
sort of moroccan, as delightful, no doubt,
TO them, as are snails, frogs, crabs and
similar delicacies to American appe
tites.-Fannie B. Ward in Boston Trans
cript.