scorpions Essay

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The Arthropod I chose to research is Scorpions. Scorpions are a member of the Arachnida class. They are closely related to spiders, mites, and ticks which are multicellular, eukaryotes, have an exoskeleton made of chitin, and have jointed appendages. These insects have been around for hundreds of years. There are almost 2,000 scorpion species, but only 30 or 40 have strong enough poison to actually be able to kill a person. The size of a Scorpion has been compared to the size of a tea cups. They can range from 2.5 in to 8.3 in. The body of the scorpion is divided into two parts, the cephlothorax, and the abdomen. The cephalothorax is the scorpions head made up of the eyes, mouth, pedipalps (claws) and four legs. The scorpions exoskeleton is very thick providing it with good protection from its predators. Scorpions also have two eyes located on top of their head. And usually two to five eyes along the corners of the head. The front half of the the abdomen is known as the mesosoma. Its made up of six segments. The first segment is the sexual organs. The second segment is a pair of featherlike sensory organs known as the pectines, and the final four segments each contain a pair of book lungs. The scorpions tail is called the metasoma containing the scorpions anus, and the telson. The telson holds a pair of venom glands, and the hypodermic aculeus, the venom-injecting barb. Scorpions are commonly thought of being found in the desert, but they also live in Brazilian forests, British Columbia, North Carolina, and the Himalayas. Scorpions prefer to live in areas where the temperature ranges from 68°F to 99°F, but they can also survive from freezing temperatures to the desert heat. Scorpions are nocturnal and fossorial, they find shelter during the day in a relatively cool place such as underground holes, and they come out at night to hunt and feed. They also have to avoid

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