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There are about 1260 known species of this animal, which react differently both to the venom of colleagues of the same species and to that of different species. Many of them are extremely resistant: it would take an amount equivalent to several bites to bring them to death. “The scorpion’s resistance to its own venom is the result of the hemolymph, a liquid that has the same function as blood in invertebrates. This substance is able to neutralize the toxins in the venom,” says ethologist Rogério Bertani, from the Arthropods Laboratory at the Butantan Institute, in São Paulo, who specializes in arachnids, the class to which scorpions belong. Thus, the story that they commit suicide when they are cornered and at risk of their lives can only be a myth, since the amount that they could inject into themselves would have practically no effect on their organism.
Many species are cannibals, but usually the smaller individuals are devoured by the larger ones, who use only their physical strength to subdue the victim. Scorpions are prehistoric animals, whose oldest fossils date back to 420 million years – 200 million years before the emergence of dinosaurs! Of the more than a thousand known species, about 90 can be found in Brazil, and the Tityus serrulatus, called the yellow scorpion, is what causes the most serious human accidents in the country.