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Biology and Distribution of Scorpions of Medical Importance
Published in Jürg Meier, Julian White, Handbook of: Clinical Toxicology of Animal Venoms and Poisons, 2017
The main food of scorpions are insects and arachnids. In some species (Bothriurus sp.) cannibalism was observed. Scorpions do not hunt for food but wait for their prey, which is detected by sensory hairs, called trichobothria, localized mainly on the pedipalps. The prey is seized in little portions and predigested chemically in the preoral cavity. Scorpions can live for several months without food and sometimes even without water.
Epidemiology of scorpionism in France: nationwide scorpion exposure
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2021
Jules-Antoine Vaucel, Cédric Gil-Jardine, Magali Labadie, Sébastien Larréché, Camille Paradis, Audrey Nardon, Arnaud Courtois, Jérôme Langrand, Hatem Kallel
Our study has several limitations. First, it is a registry-based observational study, with the inherent limitations of retrospective examination. In addition, the data were collected only from the FPCC database. Therefore, this study underestimates the total number scorpion stings and their distribution in France. Second, Subgroup analysis could not be performed due to the small number of patients envenomed in overseas territories. Third, nearly 50% of scorpion’s species were not identified. Finally, identification of the scorpion species was difficult in some cases even when performed by specialists, or based on geographical distribution data [64]. For example, in mainland France and Corsica, the colour can be used to differentiate Euscorpius species (black) from B. occitanus (yellow). But formal identification of the Euscorpius species is based on studies of the trichobothria on the femur, patella and chela of the pedipalps [65]. I. maculatus is the only specie present in the Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, which improved the reliability of envenoming data from this location [25]. For this, the identification of scorpion species by a non-specialist is not accurate especially in French Guiana, due to the large number and/or visual similarity of scorpions [5,64]