Sting in the tale as scorpion caught on camera for first time

PARIS — The world’s most lethal scorpion, the death stalker, has been caught on high-speed camera for the first time lashing out with its lethal stinger, scientists reported on Tuesday.

A comparison of half-adozen scorpion species shown in ultraslow motion revealed an unsuspected variety of strike modes, they reported in the journal Functional Ecology.

The death stalker had the fastest lunge of all, with its venomous stinger snapping over its head like a whip at 130 centimeters per second.

It has a no-nonsense trajectory, moving straight toward its target before flicking upward. The emperor scorpion — the world’s largest — has a similar open strike.

Other species, such as the black spitting scorpion, which can squirt venom at a distance, and various members of the hottentotta genus, strike with a more circular motion, forming an “O”.

“We found that different ‘tail’ shapes” — some slim, some fatter — “appear to permit different strike performances,” said senior author Arie van der Meijden, a professor at the University of Porto in Portugal.

To record and analyze the lightning-fast strikes, van der Meijden and his team built a small platform surrounded by mirrors on all four sides.

They filmed the scorpion strikes from above with a video camera at 500 frames per second, and then created 3D models using computers.

“Just taking them out of their container and putting them in the arena was enough to get them in stinging mood ,” van der Meijden said.

Next on the research agenda is to figure out the evolutionary forces which explain why the strike patterns are so varied.

It could be “related to the kind of predators they need to defend themselves against,” van der Meijden said.

The differences could also arise from the fact that some scorpions rely lesson their tail stingers, and more on their pincers to ward off a threat.

A 2008 study in the journal Acta Tropica estimated that more than 3,000 people die every year from scorpion bites.

Measuring up to 110 millimeters in length, death stalkers (Leiurus quinques-triatus) are found in dry regions of North Africa and the Middle East, where they live under rocks.

Their venom is highly dangerous for adults, and potentially lethal for children, but has been a valuable avenue for drug research.