I know its cruel......but

[Drumminglizards]

I've heard that if you put a drop of alcohol on a scorpion they'll go crazy and sting themselves to death. True?

 

[edesign]

scorpions are immune to their own poison...

as for a direct answer, i'm not sure. try the forum search engine *points towards top of page*, i seem to remember this being discussed before.

 

[errit]

I wonder if scorpions are really immune for their own venom. because if someone of the same species stings another one of the same species, than it will die.

 

[G. Carnell]

this claim i think was from L.Quin where L.Quin is immune to its own venom UNLESS injected into the brain

thats where that info comes from,
im sure species which are prone to cannibalise (maybe smerigurus?) might be less immune to their own venom (?)

also amount of venom injected is a factor

 

[fusion121]

There is rather a lot of conflicting opinion on this I've read various things saying they are totally immune to their own venom and others saying injection into the nerve ganglion will result on death. The best paper I've read on it goes for the former option, that scorpions are totally immune to their own venom:

CHRISTIAN LEGROS et al., THE MYTH OF SCORPION SUICIDE: ARE SCORPIONS INSENSITIVE TO THEIR OWN VENOM?, 1998, J. of Experimental Biology 201, 2625–2636

They tested T. stigmurus confluenciata and A. australis, for evidence of nervous and muscular response to their own venom and found virtually no effect (however its not made clear in the paper where the venom was injected) None the less its obvious that these scorpions are basically totally immune to their own venom.

 

[RaZeDaHeLL666]

Yes the alcohole trick is true, also a scorp will kill itself when surrounded by fire! Scorps ARE immune to thier own venom, I've witnessed my emperor female SEVERAL times drinking from her stinger. I know it sound crazy but I swear on my life. She moves the stinger around and I see her acually drinking liquid. She also chews on grass and bark. lol The humidity is 80 but she doesnt seem to know how to drink from the water dish!

 

[fusion121]

Hi, neither the alcohol nor the fire stories are true. I don't know where the alcohol one comes from, but the fire one is complete myth, the only slight truth in it being that fire may cause a scorpion to overheat and spasm wildly, which might possibly make it look like it was stinging itself.

Also your scorpion is not drinking its venom, all scorpions do this when then reach the tail over and place the barb in their mouth parts in order to clean it, you often see them doing it as part of a grooming session (mouth parts, pedipalps, prosoma and then sting).

 

[Nazgul]

Hi,

interesting topic.

Some time ago I put together a pair of A. australis. They started mating and I left the room for while. When I came back they had finished and the male was dead without any obvious injuries. The mating had been successful though, the female gave birth several months later. This happened some years ago and unfortunately I didn´t look for a recess in the male´s body where venom could have been injected. So I can´t say the death had been definitely caused by the female´s venom. But what else could have been the reason? It couldn´t have been because of age cause both the male and the female had molted to maturity recently.

A friend of mine had a very similar experience with A. australis. His male was dead without having mated with the female before but he was able to find a recess in the pleural membranes of the male. So the venom had not been injected into the nerve ganglion. Probabely the male died because of the mechanical injuries and not of the venom.

Greetings
Alex

 

[fusion121]

It does seem strange that venom should have no effect, certainly in cases of cannibalism it seems odd since one scorpion would have to subdue the other using brute strength alone where the scorpions are often of a very similar size, but the study I cited seemed pretty reliable. That said I just read another paper again:

A. V. PERETTI, Sexual cannibalism in scorpions: fact or fiction?, 1999, B.J. Linnaean Society, 68: 485–496.

They report in this that at various times males were stung, and the sting caused them to die during courtship. I guess it could be that the venom has some other action other then on the muscular/neural system, but I have no idea what that could be.

And of course theres the matter of the sexual sting, which seems to indicate that one scorpion stinging another does have some physiological effect, since its reported to result in the calming of the female.

 

[G. Carnell]

but.. what about the sexual sting?

i saw in one euscorpius tergestinus corsicanus mating the male sting the female 3 times, then she was very comatose,
but didnt die

 

[ScorpDude]

but.. what about the sexual sting?

i saw in one euscorpius tergestinus corsicanus mating the male sting the female 3 times, then she was very comatose,
but didnt die

isn't that called rape?!?

 

[edesign]

haha...good one!

 

[guesskatiejules]

Perhaps they are immune to their own venom because it is something manufactured by their own body? Maybe every scorpion's venom is slightly different, unique to that particular scorpion, not in potency or anything, just specific to their body.

I'm just taking a shot at answering the question. Not too sure if my reasoning is correct or not.

 

[Kaos]

According to Jonathan Leeming's book, "Scorpions of southern africa", scorpions are immune to their own venom because of toxin resistance in their hemolymph. They will die fast if venom is injected into the ganglion(brain) though. See pages 34-35.

 

[fusion121]

According to Jonathan Leeming's book, "Scorpions of southern africa", scorpions are immune to their own venom because of toxin resistance in their hemolymph. They will die fast if venom is injected into the ganglion(brain) though. See pages 34-35.

Yes I read that as well, however its obviously not a well understood area of scorpion biology, I think even the experts will have limited knowledge on the subject.

 

[Kaos]

Yes, I know It should be investigated closer, I don't have the heart to do any such experiments.

 

[RaZeDaHeLL666]

Hi, neither the alcohol nor the fire stories are true. I don't know where the alcohol one comes from, but the fire one is complete myth, the only slight truth in it being that fire may cause a scorpion to overheat and spasm wildly, which might possibly make it look like it was stinging itself.

Also your scorpion is not drinking its venom, all scorpions do this when then reach the tail over and place the barb in their mouth parts in order to clean it, you often see them doing it as part of a grooming session (mouth parts, pedipalps, prosoma and then sting).

I believe the fire stories are true and exactly what you said, they spaz out! and if my scorp was simply "cleaning" which she does do, what was the liquid dripping from her stinger? and what explains her eating grass? chewing on moist bark chips? She obviosly has her own ways of drinking. I keep the humidity HIGH and she still does it!

 

[JonDaAzn]

she could be drinking condensation off of her exoskeleton, I know there are beetles who live in the desert that do that

 

[G. Carnell]

Hey
when they clean themselves they use the stinger to clean parts of their body,
if you see the whole process the stinger is brought to the mouth and then the chelicerae kinda clean it and then the sting is used to rub some of this liquid all over the body,

i saw the whole process in Heterometrus spp, if they dont use the sting all they can clean are the claws with the chelicerae

 

[fusion121]

I believe the fire stories are true and exactly what you said, they spaz out! and if my scorp was simply "cleaning" which she does do, what was the liquid dripping from her stinger? and what explains her eating grass? chewing on moist bark chips? She obviosly has her own ways of drinking. I keep the humidity HIGH and she still does it!

Hi the fire stories say the scorpion kills itself when surrounded by fire, it doesn't, if they die its because of the temperature. Being ectotherms the temperature will rise and rise causing all their body chemistry to go haywire eventually killing them (part of this process involves the scorpion becoming very over excited and spasming) ,nothing to do with them stinging themselves.

As people have said if you see your scorpion drinking form the sting it could be condensed moisture, or it may simply be that some venom was accidentally excreted, which they seem to do sometimes. Drinking their own venom would be an incredibly inefficient way to get moisture, not to mention they are going to destroy all the venom proteins they just synthesised.