Scorpion Spiders

**Scorpion Spiders** (サソリクモ, *Sasorikumo*) are dangerous and carnivorous Magical Beasts. Essentially, they are enormous creatures with a spider's body and a scorpion's tail and are one of the species to inhabit the Lost Forest near Athelney School of Nen and Abilities.

## Biology

The Scorpion Spiders are creatures that can live very long; the oldest documented one died of natural causes at the age of 255. It is possible to tell a Scorpion Spider's age by counting the number of rings it has on its tail, as every one represents 3 years of life. Those creatures seem to never stop growing in size as they age, at rather slow rate. A newborn male Scorpion Spider lengths approximately 1 cm, while a newborn female is slighter bigger, measuring 1.5 cm. Most 30-years old Scorpion Spiders measure about the size of a horse (about 1.8 meters tall).

In their tails, Scorpion Spider possess internal venom glands which produce extremely deadly venom that can easily kill other species. With their stinger, they can attack their preys and inject venom into them; the effects of the venom depend on the age of the spider, as it becomes more dangerous as it grows. An injection from a very young spider varies from no effect at all to simply numbness on the area. An older spider may paralyze the victim, while a fully grown spider can kill it instantly. The quantity of venom on the animal also varies depending on its age, and people were even able to obtain 5 liters of blood from a single spider (around the total volume of blood in a human adult).

The Scorpion Spiders reproduce through eggs, which are laid by the female after mating with a male.

## Hierarchy and Behavior

Scorpion Spiders organize themselves in colonies. They do not possess defined social classes or ranks; instead, each colony is led by the oldest male and female spiders that are part on it. After their death, their position is taken by the now oldest male and female. The leaders are always met with absolute respect and obedience, with the other spiders agreeing to all their orders. Scorpion Spiders can be seen as a cannibalistic species, as they typically eat the cadavers of their deceased members; this however, is not seen as disrespect, and is a cultural funeral rite. Normally only the direct family of a deceased spider eats its body, but when one or both of the leaders die, all spiders come together to feast on them.

They possess aggressive instincts and attack all living beings they see on sight when they are hungry and hunting for food. Even if they are not hungry, staying near a Scorpion Spider is very dangerous and most of the times ends in death, as they are a very territorial species and will not hesitate to slay any creature not belonging to their species or colony that tries to invade their territory.

It is unknown if Scorpion Spiders are able to be tamed if raised since birth by a being of another species, such as a human, but it is generally considered impossible due to their natural instincts. Even if it was not the spider's intent to kill its owner, they usually ended up doing so during a series of tests some scientists made; this happened since the young spiders unwittingly have to train their tails and usually end up stinging whatever is near them. In the same chain of tests, some other spiders died due to lack of food, as Scorpion Spiders eat a lot.

## Development and Reproduction

After mating, a female Scorpion Spider lays eggs. They are capable of laying up to two hundred eggs at one time, which are quite small in size. Those eggs hatch after around 4 to 6 weeks, and the newborn spiders crack them from the inside and leave, their life beginning. Due to circumstances of birth, however, a part of those spiders die while still in the egg; in a case of 200 eggs, this is what happens for an estimate of 30% of them, and thus, 60 spiders die before birth and 140 remain.