Scorpion

an animal allied to the spider. The scorpion has a large pair of feelers strikingly like the claws of a lobster or crayfish. These claws are used to seize spiders and large insects which the scorpion pursues at night with great activity. The last seven segments of the abdomen are extended like a tail. The last segment terminates in a sting with which the scorpion paralyzes its prey. When aroused, the scorpion brandishes its sting in a threatening manner. Scorpions are natives of warm or torrid countries. Some twenty species are found in the South. The sting of certain tropical species is represented to be fatal to man. In Rev. ix: 5 extreme pain is likened to "the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man." The various species are from two to six inches in length. The people of southern Europe are careful to shake their shoes before they put them on, least a scorpion may have taken shelter in them. Scorpions are not rare in the arid regions of the Southwest. Mounted specimens are sold as curios. One dealer in Pasadena, California, claims to sell 5,000 scorpions a year. He employs Indians and boys to collect for him. See Tarantula; Centipede; Zodiac