. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. 300 ARACHNIDA SCORPIONIDEA chap. these scorpions plentifully in arid, stony spots exposed to the sun. They were always solitary, and if two were found under the same stone, one was engaged in eating the other. Their sight is so poor that they do not recognise each other without absolute contact. Fabre established colonies in his garden and study, providing them with suitable soil and sheltering stones. They dug holes by reducing the earth to powder by means of the three anterior pairs of legsânever using their pedipalpi in the operationâ and sweeping a
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. 300 ARACHNIDA SCORPIONIDEA chap. these scorpions plentifully in arid, stony spots exposed to the sun. They were always solitary, and if two were found under the same stone, one was engaged in eating the other. Their sight is so poor that they do not recognise each other without absolute contact. Fabre established colonies in his garden and study, providing them with suitable soil and sheltering stones. They dug holes by reducing the earth to powder by means of the three anterior pairs of legsânever using their pedipalpi in the operationâ and sweeping away the debris with the tail. From October to March they ate nothing, rejecting all food offered to them, though always awake and ready to resent disturbance. In April appetite seemed to awaken, though a very trifling amount of food seemed to suffice. At that time, too, they began to wander, and apparently without any intention of returning, and they continued daily to escape from the garden enclosure until the most stringent measures were taken to keep them in. Not till they were surrounded by glass and the framework of their cages covered with varnished paper were their attempts to climb out of their prison frustrated. Fabre came to the conclusion that they took at least five years to attain their full size. His most interesting observations were concerned with their mating habits, in connection with which he noted some extra- ordinary phenomena,. After some very curious antics, in which the animals stood face to face (Fig. 167) with raised tails, which they intertwined â evidently with no hostile inten- tionâthey always in- dulged in what Fabre calls a "promenade a Fig. 168.âThe "promenade d deux" ot Buthus ,iâ,, >< i, j â i i ocoiianus. (After Fabre.) ^^^^^^' '^^'^^ !» hand, SO to speak, the male seizing the chelae of the female with its own, and walking backwards, while the female followed, usually without any reluctance. This promenade occup
Size: 2251px × 1110px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1895
