Because scorpions molt their exoskeleton every so often in order to grow, researchers have observed that, until the mushy outer shell has entirely hardened, the hyaline layer doesn't fluoresce under UV light. What we do know is the chemicals that make a scorpion so rave-ready are in the outer layer, or cuticle, of its exoskeleton - scientists call it the hyaline layer. Chemically speaking, nobody's exactly sure what causes scorpions to glow, but we know it's powerful stuff - when a scorpion is preserved in alcohol, the alcohol itself fluoresces! Unbelievably, scorpion fossils have even been induced to glow under black light after hundreds of millions of years. All a scorpion researcher has to do to find scorpions is go out into the desert at night with a black light, and watch those suckers light up like Christmas trees. Why they do this is a bit of a mystery, but it makes them pretty easy to study. Some animals are just over the top, you know? Take scorpions: Is it not enough that these stinging arachnids can survive some of the harshest climates in the world, live 25 times longer than your average cockroach, give birth to live young (and some species don't even need a male to reproduce), live up to 48 hours without oxygen, and eat almost anything they can subdue - even other scorpions? No, it's not enough, because scorpions also glow electric scarab green under ultraviolet light. #21 Male Crab Spider ( Cebrenninus rugosa) ID kindly provided by David Court.A bucket full of scorpions under black light. #18 Appears to be a pisaurid, but check out the eye arrangement (below) and it should be a ctenid, likely to be from the genus Acantheis. #17 Ground Spider ( Mallinella cinctipes) with supper #15 A tiny Amblypygi, resident of Nangka Trail. #12 A beautiful Huntsman Spider ( Olios sp.) #11 A very small female Bird Dung Spider ( Pasilobus sp.) #9 James found this common male Tarantula ( Phlogiellus sp.) on the leaf litter. The scene was lighted with a red light, showing again that the babies do not glow under UV light. #8 Another old picture of a scorpion with babies. That’s probably why the babies do not glow. As mentioned earlier, the chemical causing the glow accumulates on mature exoskeletons. Without the UV light, it would appear completely black. #5 Different scorpions glow as well! Possibly Hemiscorpiidae, Liocheles australasiae. Scorpions have overly sensitive eyes and cannot see very well. #4 The same pair lighted with only UV light. For Navigation Another theory used to explain scorpions’ glowing ability is for sensory purposes. #3 A pair of scorpions on the tree bark, again with fill flash #2 Same composition, but purely lit by UV light This Lychas scutilus is quite commonly found in Singapore. #1 Had everyone practising UV shots with my UV torch, this shot used flash to fill the background. Update : My UV photos were recently published on WIRED, with more details on this phenomenon: The Secret World of Fluorescent Arthropods. If it requires to move in the day for any reason, this might help to re-radiate solar energy from the sun.Īs for HOW the glow came about, further scouring found that the mature exoskeleton accumulates a chemical called beta-carboline, which glows under UV. Scorpions normally hunt at night and are tuned for the light and temperature conditions. There is another theory that the nocturnal scorpions have properties in it’s exoskeleton that repels UV light, protecting it from the sun. Douglas Gaffin of the University of Oklahoma “blindfolded” the scorpions and found that they could still detect light. It is believed to be used by the scorpions to detect shelter, as being under shelter would block the light signals on it’s body. But few know why or how.Īfter scouring around for answers, the most commonly accepted answer was… that the scorpion’s cuticle or exoskeleton functions as a giant secondary eye, collecting light information and relaying it to the nervous system. Many macro shooters have come to know that the scorpion’s exoskeleton glows a bright cyan under Ultra Violet (UV) light.
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