Scorpion in the context of "Arachnid"

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⭐ Core Definition: Scorpion

Scorpions (order Scorpiones) are predatory arachnids with eight legs, a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always ending with a stinger. The evolutionary history of scorpions goes back 435 million years. They mainly live in deserts but have adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions, and can be found on all continents except Antarctica. There are over 2,500 described species, with 22 extant (living) families recognized to date. Their taxonomy is being revised to account for 21st-century genomic studies.

Scorpions primarily prey on insects and other invertebrates, but some species hunt vertebrates. They use their pincers to restrain and kill prey, or to prevent their own predation. The venomous sting is used for offense and defense. During courtship, the male and female grasp each other's pincers and dance while the male tries to move the female onto its sperm packet. All known species give live birth and the female cares for the young as their exoskeletons harden, transporting them on its back. The exoskeleton contains fluorescent chemicals and glows under ultraviolet light.

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Scorpion in the context of Manticore

The manticore or mantichore (Latin: mantichorās; reconstructed Old Persian: *martyahvārah; Modern Persian: مردخوار mardḫ(w)ār) is a legendary creature from ancient Persian mythology, similar to the Egyptian sphinx that proliferated in Western European medieval art as well. It has the face of a human, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion or a tail covered in venomous spines similar to porcupine quills. There are some accounts that the spines can be launched like arrows. It eats its victims whole, using its three rows of teeth, and leaves no bones behind.

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Scorpion in the context of Gill

A gill (/ɡɪl/ ) is a specialized respiratory organ that many aquatic animals use for aquatic gas exchange, i.e. to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. Branchia (pl.: branchiae, from Ancient Greek βράγχια) is the zoologists' academic name for gills.

The gills of some semi-aquatic clades (e.g. crabs, terrestrial hermit crabs and amphibious fishes), have also adapted to allow air respiration (breathing) on land provided the gills are kept moist. In some terrestrial chelicerates species (tetrapulmonates such as spiders and scorpions), their ancestral gills have evolved into fully air-breathing book lungs. In some planktivorous bony fish species (e.g. silver and bighead carps), the gills are also used as a filter feeding organ via comb-like projections called gill rakers.

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Scorpion in the context of Egg

An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell – a zygote. Within the vessel, an embryo is incubated until it has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the animal hatches. Reproductive structures similar to the egg in other kingdoms are termed "spores", or in spermatophytes "seeds", or in gametophytes "egg cells".

Most arthropods, vertebrates (excluding live-bearing mammals), and mollusks lay eggs, although some, such as scorpions, do not. Reptile eggs, bird eggs, and monotreme eggs are laid out of water and are surrounded by a protective shell, either flexible or inflexible. Eggs laid on land or in nests are usually kept within a warm and favorable temperature range while the embryo grows. When the embryo is adequately developed it hatches; i.e., breaks out of the egg's shell. Some embryos have a temporary egg tooth they use to crack, pip, or break the eggshell or covering.

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Scorpion in the context of Chelicerate

The subphylum Chelicerata (from Neo-Latin, from French chélicère, from Ancient Greek χηλή (khēlḗ) 'claw, chela' and κέρας (kéras) 'horn') constitutes one of the major subdivisions of the phylum Arthropoda. Chelicerates include the sea spiders, horseshoe crabs, and arachnids (including harvestmen, scorpions, spiders, solifuges, ticks, and mites, among many others), as well as a number of extinct lineages, such as the eurypterids (sea scorpions) and chasmataspidids.

Chelicerata split from Mandibulata by the mid-Cambrian, as evidenced by stem-group chelicerates like Habeliida and Mollisonia present by this time. The surviving marine species include the four species of xiphosurans (horseshoe crabs), and possibly the 1,300 species of pycnogonids (sea spiders), if the latter are indeed chelicerates. On the other hand, there are over 77,000 well-identified species of air-breathing chelicerates, and there may be about 500,000 unidentified species.

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Scorpion in the context of Arachnids

Arachnids are arthropods in the class Arachnida (/əˈræknɪdə/) of the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, camel spiders, whip spiders and vinegaroons.

Adult arachnids have eight legs attached to the cephalothorax. In some species the frontmost pair of legs has converted to a sensory function, while in others, different appendages can grow large enough to take on the appearance of extra pairs of legs.

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Scorpion in the context of Insecticide

Insecticides are pesticides used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, respectively. The major use of insecticides is in agriculture, but they are also used in home and garden settings, industrial buildings, for vector control, and control of insect parasites of animals and humans.

Acaricides, which kill mites and ticks, are not strictly insecticides, but are usually classified together with insecticides. Some insecticides (including common bug sprays) are effective against other non-insect arthropods as well, such as scorpions, spiders, etc. Insecticides are distinct from insect repellents, which repel but do not kill.

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Scorpion in the context of Scorpion Macehead

The Scorpion macehead (also known as the Major Scorpion macehead) is a decorated ancient Egyptian macehead found by British archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green in what they called the main deposit in the temple of Horus at Hierakonpolis during the dig season of 1897–1898. It measures 25 centimeters long, is made of limestone, is pear-shaped, and is attributed to the pharaoh Scorpion (c. 3200–3000 BCE) due to the glyph of a scorpion engraved close to the image of a king wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt.

A second, smaller macehead fragment showing Scorpion wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt is referred to as the "Minor Scorpion macehead".

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