Why Scorpions GLOW under Black Lights? The Truth About Invertebrate Monsters of the Desert Night

#scorpion #sonorandesert
In the desert, the day is hot under the scorching sun. The desert animals must find a way to deal with the heat of the day; which for most means retreating into the shade or a dark burrow to sleep. When the sun sets, and darkness descends upon this land, however, things change. The air temperature falls and creatures begin to stir from their slumber. Male tarantulas leave their burrows to find a mate. He will wonder the desert searching for her layer. While these male tarantulas search the darkened saguaro forest, another group of arachnid assassins scuttle in the night, scorpions. Fearsome looking with a tail, called a metasoma, tipped with a venomous sting, They have a secret ability. One of the strangest phenomena in the world of arthropods; under ultraviolet (UV) light they fluoresce, becoming glowing beacons in a darkened desert wash, glowing in the dark, but why? Like all arthropods scorpions have an exoskeleton cuticle made primarily of the modified polysaccharide chitin. Mixed into this cuticle are other materials. Scorpions mix beta-carboline into their cuticle. This molecule fluoresces in ultraviolet light, making the scorpion fluoresce as well. Several hypotheses have been proposed, but one has some scientific evidence, scorpions are using florescence to detect light.

Sources
Fabre, Jean-Henri; Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (1916) The Life of the spider, Dodd, Mead, New York.
Stachel SJ, Stockwell SA, van Vranken DL (August 1999). "The fluorescence of scorpions and cataractogenesis". Chem. Biol. 6 (8): 531–9. doi:10.1016/S1074-5521(99)80085-4. PMID 10421760.
František Kovařík (2009). "Illustrated catalog of scorpions, Part I" (PDF). Retrieved January 22, 2011.

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This is Backyard Expeditions. Here you can find wildlife footage and short documentaries on the natural world. Nature is full of surprises, often amazing things are happening just feet from you door. I am a biology student who was inspired by the likes of the BBC natural history unit, PBS, and animal planet as a Child. I have also long been a hobbyist photographer, filming interesting things over time. My goal is to document interesting behavior and highlight interesting species I encounter both in exotic locations, and on backyard expeditions.

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[clownfishofficial]

Great video, very well made and easy to watch! Love the content :D

[BioBush]

Woah, so they must be really sensitive to the fluorescent color to detect it over evening sunlight! Thanks for sharing the different theories, and explaining which ones are more likely. This was a super interesting topic. Also, 100% amazing footage. Great work!

[aFieldBiologist]

Nice job! Better than mine on trhe same subject!

[Kroggnagch]

Hello. Born and raised in the Arizona desert for 35 years now, and I can tell you that this is America’s Australia. There isn’t a critter or a plant here that doesn’t want to kill or at least maim you to some degree. We have typically 2 types of scorpions; the desert hairy, and the bark scorpion. Desert hairies are venomous no doubt, but they won’t kill an adult. Bark scorpions on the other hand, are much smaller and much much more dangerous even to a healthy adult if it happens to sting one. You’d really have to be not paying attention or messing with the scorpion in some way to get stung tho as they’re not going out of their way to waste venom on defense with something it won’t be able to eat. Frankly, the rattlesnakes are worse. Oh, but I have no clue why they fluoresce so I am quite unhelpful and mostly a well of useless knowledge. The Arizona sun does that to ya after a couple decades. Take care =]