A scorpion on the defensive might erupt off its tail for get away – sacrificing its cut and even its anus as a issue . The stump heals apace , but the discarded bits never grow back , leaving the subsister ineffectual to poop or interject venom into its fair game . Thefindingswere published inPLOS ONEthis hebdomad .
Autotomy is the voluntary peeling of a body part , usually as part of an anti - predation tactic . The detachment occurs at a predetermined dapple called the cleavage planing machine ( designate with scoot dividing line in the image above ) . Breaking off at these sites of weakness minimizes harm and promotes the rapid sealing of full of life fluids ( called hemolymph ) . Some spiders do this with their legs , while some lizards might drop their fundament . Only one metal money of scorpion has been seen detaching its abdomen , but the details are scanty . Now , a team led byCamilo Mattoni from Universidad Nacional de Córdobain Argentina report the autotomy of the metasoma – the hind part of the abdomen , or the tail – in 14Ananterisscorpion mintage from South America .
Out in the theater of operations , the squad turned over portion of rocks during the day and used ultraviolet light light source to detect the Scorpio at night , marking down when and where on the dead body the breakup occurred . Back in the research laboratory , they examined museum specimen that had undergone autotomy and conducted a serial publication of experiments with 35Ananteris solimariaeadults collect from Colombia . The researcher would hold onto the metasoma with forceps and pull rearwards gently for no more than 30 seconds . see below ( left ) , an adult male person with an pointer indicating the first of segmentation :
In 22 of the 25 males , the tail was severed at the join between metasomal section I and II , II and III , or III and IV – which allowed the scorpion to scarper . This happened as quickly 0.29 seconds after contact with the forceps . Only one out of five female did the same , and the process was n’t observed in either of the two juveniles they analyse .
With minimal hemolymph loss , the severed surface healed rapidly and scar tissue formed in just five day . ( you could see some great photos of mend stumpshere . ) However , the lost parts ca n’t regenerate , and the scorpion is permanently without the posterior part of its digestive system and the ability to inject spitefulness by stinging .
As a result , it no longer shit and can only capture small quarry ( like 5 - milimeter crickets ) using their mouthpart . After about 20 days or so , the abdomen of the scorpions were visibly swollen because of the excrement figure - up ; two of them even suffered a second autotomy due to the internal atmospheric pressure . Extreme deadening and portion control auditory sensation jolly bad , but most of the males in the experiments survived and even continued to checkmate with females for up to eight month afterwards .
Images : C.I. Mattoni et al . , 2015 PLOS ONE
