No.19 Asian Forest Scorpion

Its Japanese name is “chaguro scorpion,” but its body color is mostly black with a glossy sheen. They catch crickets, locusts, and other small prey with a poisonous stinger on the tip of their tail, and disassemble them with scissors on the front end for consumption. Since the chaguaro scorpion's toxicity is not very strong, it is not an effective attack on natural enemies and is often easily preyed upon. It is distributed mainly in humid areas of Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia, and is also kept as a pet in Japan. However, even scorpions with low toxicity can cause anaphylactic shock symptoms, so care should be taken when keeping them.

In the tomographic image, the digestive organs that pass through the center of the body can be observed. The bulging tail segment contains the venom gland, where venom containing peptide components is produced. In the present study, the tail segment alone was scanned at a voxel size of 7 μm to capture even the shape of the sensory hairs, in addition to the entire body. In addition, the 3D data shows eight small indentations on the abdomen called “book lungs,” which serve to deliver oxygen to the abdomen.