{"id":1438,"date":"2021-10-06T15:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T18:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2023-03-29T14:09:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T17:09:03","slug":"tools-of-death-with-a-touch-of-romance-all-the-amazing-things-scorpions-use-their-weapons-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/2021\/10\/06\/tools-of-death-with-a-touch-of-romance-all-the-amazing-things-scorpions-use-their-weapons-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools of death with a touch of romance: all the amazing things scorpions use their weapons for"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yuri Simone, CIBIO Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, Porto, Portugal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arie van der Meijden, CIBIO Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, Porto, Portugal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Animals need to feed, defend themselves from attackers and fight to mate with partners. To do so, some species evolved actual weapons like sharp teeth, claws, horns or tusks, while others, produce toxic or repelling compounds. Among all the armed animals, scorpions are unique due to the set of weapons they bear: a pair of pincers in the front of their body and a venomous stinger in the rear. Uniquely, scorpions use both their weapon systems to defend, catch prey, and even court a mate. The review article “Armed stem to stinger: a review of the ecological roles of scorpion weapons<\/a>“, published in the Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases <\/em>(vol. 27), gives us a glimpse into how scorpions use their weapons. For instance, they evolved custom venoms to deal with us pesky vertebrates, but can also pinch their way out of a sticky situation. Scorpions also catch prey with their pincers, and then quickly knock it out with their venom. Most surprisingly, scorpions can \u201cdance\u201d hand-in-hand for hours and culminate their romantic date with a \u201csexual sting\u201d before mating.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Figure 1. Two scorpions (Androctonus amoreuxi on the right and Pandinus imperator on the left) showing off their best weapons. Copyright by Yuri Simone.<\/p><\/div>\n

Noticing the lack of a recent overview about scorpions\u2019 weapons, the two authors from the Centro de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o em Biodiversidade e Recursos Gen\u00e9ticos (CIBIO) in Portugal decided to screen 150 years of available literature about scorpion weapons, summarizing and interpreting well over 300 papers, organized by the context of weapon usage.<\/p>\n

This review synthesizes the available literature on scorpion weapons, in relation to animal weapons in general. It is well worth the read for interested lay people, scorpion enthusiasts, and serves as a reference point for researchers and students in this field.<\/p>\n

To read the article, acess<\/h3>\n

SIMONE, Y.\u00a0AND MEIJDEN, A. V. Armed stem to stinger: a review of the ecological roles of scorpion weapons. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases<\/em> [online]. 2021, vol.27 [viewed\u00a006 October 2021]. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1590\/1678-9199-JVATITD-2021-0002<\/a>. Available from: https:\/\/www.scielo.br\/j\/jvatitd\/a\/FLP7CFgqGhK788Fz5ygcsfw\/?lang=en#<\/a><\/p>\n

External links<\/h3>\n

Arie van der Meijden: http:\/\/www.arievandermeijden.nl<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook \u2013 Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JVATiTD<\/a><\/p>\n

Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases \u2013 JVATITD: http:\/\/www.scielo.br\/jvatitd<\/a><\/p>\n

Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases: http:\/\/www.jvat.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter \u2013 Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases: https:\/\/twitter.com\/JVATiTD<\/a><\/p>\n

Yuri Simone Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/YuriSimone1<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the world of animal weaponry, scorpions stand out by having two separate weapons, used in many different ways. The authors consolidate 150 years of research in the perspectives of feeding, defense and sexually related contests. An exciting guided tour into scorpion weapon biology and a reference for researchers. …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":1439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,5,8,120,12],"tags":[121,206],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agricultural-sciences","category-biological-sciences","category-health-sciences","category-jvatitd","category-press-releases","tag-journal-of-venomous-animals-and-toxins-including-tropical-diseases","tag-veterinary-medicine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1443,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions\/1443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}