#UV LIGHT TO FIND SCORPIONS FULL#

All a scorpion researcher has to do to find scorpions is go out into the desert at night with a black light, and watch those suckers light up like Christmas trees. Why they do this is a bit of a mystery, but it makes them pretty easy to study. Some animals are just over the top, you know? Take scorpions: Is it not enough that these stinging arachnids can survive some of the harshest climates in the world, live 25 times longer than your average cockroach, give birth to live young (and some species don't even need a male to reproduce), live up to 48 hours without oxygen, and eat almost anything they can subdue - even other scorpions? No, it's not enough, because scorpions also glow electric scarab green under ultraviolet light.

#UV LIGHT TO FIND SCORPIONS FULL#

To find out more about Science workshops, and holiday clubs for kids in Devon, either browse our webpage here or contact us here.A bucket full of scorpions under black light. ~Scorpions were around when dinosaurs roamed the earth! Science Holiday Clubs, Workshop & Events It hides during the day under rocks and in holes then emerges at night to feed. ~Some species reproduce by parthenogenesis – where an embryo develops from an unfertilized egg (basically they can produce babies without needing to mate!) Not naturally found in the UK, but they have been introduced accidentally and now live here!

~Scorpions, with their distinctive sting, are well recognised arachnids found all over the world (except Antarctica!). So, there are several different ideas as to why scorpions fluoresce, which reason do you think is most plausable?īy the way, did you know that the scorpion fluoresces for some time after its died? Creepy.

This suggests the fluorescing substance could be just be a chemical produced in the hardening process, and is a random act and so has no function. When a scorpion sheds its skin, it temporarily loses its ability to fluoresce until the new cuticle hardens to form an exoskeleton. The substance that glows is found in the hardened exoskeleton. Another reason may be to confuse or frighten prey – which seems odd as they are nocturnal, so why glow so brightly? Other research suggests they can detect moonlight and thus know when to come out to prey.

One theory is that it acts like a sunscreen, protecting them from the sunlight, another says it may help them see in the dark by creating a kind of night-light. However, it is not known for certain why scorpions glow.

Of course scorpions don’t just glow under UV torches, they also fluoresce under natural moonlight, and that makes much more sense! When we shone a UV torch on him, he glowed an amazing bright blue-green colour. Spike the Scorpion looked black under normal light, but in fact he was a very dark green. Spike’s owner, Ranger Russ, taught us loads about all his animals that he brought in for us to see, such as Millie the Millipede, Chomper the Tarantula, and Clive the 12ft python! However I was particularly intrigued by Spike’s special ability to glow under a UV torch, so I looked into this phenomenon a bit more and here’s what I found out…. Last week at the Science & Nature Easter Holiday club, we met Spike – the scorpion.

Uv light to find scorpions