Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1916-07-11
WORSE THAN BEES
SCORPION is A PEST OF TIE
TROPICAL REGIONS.
Its Sting Much Dreaded, Though Sell
dom Fatai-Creature Has Long
Been Known In the History
of the World.

The scorpion is pest of the trop-
ical regions. 1t never lives in our lati-
tude. Its resemblance to the spiders
and the crustaceans is quite apparent.
While naturalists place the scorpions
In the class Arachnida, the class to
which the spiders belong, their super
fetal appearance reminds one of the
class Crustacea, the class to which the
crabs and Holsters belong. The big
pincers, especially, by which they seize
and hold their prey, give to the scor-
pions the aspect of the crabs and lob
sters
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 singer.
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 singer. The singer is also
used by him as a weapon of defense
against larger animals. In tropical re-
gions the sting of the scorpion is
dreaded as much as we dread the bite
of the RATHER. Although the scorpions
sting is not so severe as the bite of
rattlesnake, it is much worse than the
sting of the bee. Fatal stings by the
scorpion are exceedingly rare.
am reminded of the scorpions at
this time on account of receiving re-
Gently 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 pre-
scented to the museum by Mrs. E. ].
Lewis, she having received it from
Mrs. John Job of Newark, N. ]. 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 an
cient 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, especial
ly those of the deeper waters, change
very slowly, but land animals change
with comparative rapidity. In the
deeper waters the temperature is al
most constant and the animal is al
ways wet. On the land the tempera-
ture 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 variable envir-
onment of the land animals tends to
produce rapid changes and species die
out and new species develop. The
scorpions, however, seem to be some
what exceptional, for the living spe-
cies do not 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 un-
dergone.