The study will be published in the June issue of the journal Behavioral Processes.įollow Joseph Castro on Twitter. This potentially causes temporary blindness, pain and irritation that allows the arachnids to get away. The results suggest that when faced with highly threatening predators, such as grasshopper mice and shrews, Parabuthus scorpions squirt venom in a way that creates a diffuse spray that maximizes contact with the eyes and respiratory system of their hunters. "I developed hypersensitivity to" the venom. "When I milked scorpions, I had to wear a mask," Nisani said. "The way they squirt it gives it a nice arc, covering a wider area and making it more possible to reach a predator's eyes," Nisani said, adding that the venom also becomes airborne and able to irritate the respiratory system, causing sneezing, runny nose and itchy eyes in humans. The scientists found that the scorpions didn't consistently aim the venom at certain sensitive targets, but the movement of the arachnids' tails increased the width of the venom stream up to 190 degrees, producing a more diffuse spray. To do so, the researchers looked at the squirts' velocities, arcs and initial directions, as well as the movements of the scorpions' bodies, metasomas and telsons (end of the tail before the stinger). In a second set of experiments, Nisani and Hayes wanted to find out if the scorpions could direct their venom at the eyes and other sensitive tissues of predators. "As we predicted, seems to be under behavioral control rather than it being just a reflex," Nisani said. Preliminary observations also showed the scorpions didn't spray when only being blown upon. The researchers found the scorpions were more likely to spray venom under high-threat conditions than low-threat conditions - 87.5 percent of the time compared with 12.5 percent of the time. So in Nisani and Hayes' high-threat conditions, they grabbed the scorpions' metasomas and blew a light puff of air toward the front of the arachnids with a compressed gas duster (akin to the breath of a predator in real-world scenarios). Research suggests that animals may assess threats based on multiple cues, with more concurrent predator-associated cues equaling a higher threat level and more pronounced anti-predatory behavior. transvaalicus scorpions, simulating these two conditions.įor the low-threat conditions, the researchers simply grabbed the metasomas (tails) of the individual scorpions with tweezers and observed if the animals sprayed venom.
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