Why do scorpions commit suicide when threatened by fire?

The scorpion, curious inhabitant of the animal world. When talking about them, a mythical characteristic is remembered: they are capable of commit suicide when threatened. But beware, this could be somewhat misleading.

In effect, we are before a whole urban legend. It is said that, when there is a lack of oxygen or there is fire, scorpions stick the stinger to themselves to avoid suffering more than necessary. This has been observed thousands of times, but it seems that science has explained exactly what it is all about. And it is not a suicide. Next, in a PROFESSOR, we explain it.

The scorpion is a type of variable temperature animal, a poikilotherm. Depending on the environment, it regulates its temperature. Thus, when surrounded by fire, your body heats up and loses hydration. This causes spasms to occur in its tail that create the optical illusion that it is biting itself.

At temperatures above 60 or 65 degrees Celsius, proteins inside coagulate and the scorpion's body convulses to finally die. In this way, when seeing them in this situation, it gives us the impression that they are pricked and die but it is not something at all conscious.

Indeed, the scorpion's stinger cannot, under any circumstances, penetrate its external skeleton. On the other hand, in the event that it could prick itself, it should be known that the scorpion is immune to its own poison.

Suicide, in fact, is a type of behavior that requires intelligence and a high degree of reasoning. The scorpion is certainly not up to the task in this regard. The very idea of ​​suicide is contrary to most animals, whose only instinct is survival.

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