Abstract
The courtship dance of the scorpion has been observed and recorded repeatedly since 1810 when Maccary1 first described it. The actual conclusion of this elaborate behaviour pattern has, however, only been surmised from circumstantial evidence. For example, both Fabre2 and Brongniart and Gaubert3 report that scorpions were surprised beneath stones “accouplés, ventre à ventre”. Vachon4 writes as follows: “the conclusion of these nuptial dances I have not observed, but anatomical investigation bears out the statement of early writers; the male fertilizes the female directly in a true copulation.…. In the course of this act, the male protrudes certain special organs to form a temporary penis, with which he inserts the sperm and finally places in position a vaginal plug—a kind of post-nuptial hymen”.
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References
Maccary, A., “Mémoire sur le Scorpion qui se trouve la montagne de Cette”, edit. 48 (Gabbon, Paris, 1810).
Fabre, J. H., “The Life of the Scorpion” (Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, 1923).
Brongniart, C., and Gaubert, P., C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, 113, 1062 (1891).
Vachon, M., Endeavour, 12, 80 (1953).
Vachon, M., Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool., (11), 1 (1938).
Lawrence, R. F., “The Biology of the Cryptic Fauna of Forests” (A. A. Balkema, Cape Town, 1953).
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ALEXANDER, A. Mating in Scorpions. Nature 178, 867–868 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/178867b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/178867b0
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