Patcharapon N.

Patcharapran S.
Palita W.
1105
The interaction between Scorpions and Lizards

On earth, there are many terrestrial biomes, each with different characteristics. The

different components of each biome make different kind of species evolve or go through

natural selection differently. Each and every biome come with a different level of threat to

pressure the species living in them. One of the most deadly biomes would have to be the

desert. Due to the low precipitation, and a very large number of dangerous predators, the

organisms living within the area would have to evolve a mechanism that would help them

conserve water and survive against different predators or harsh conditions. The most

well-known defence mechanism in the animal kingdom would have to be poison. The poisons

can be very dangerous and sometimes could even cause fatal death. One of the most

dangerous creatures, in this case, would have to be the scorpion. Scorpions are considered to

be very dangerous for many species. One of the species that scorpions sometimes feed on

their young is lizards. Lizards and scorpions are two species that share two different

interaction which is both-sided predation, and commensalism both at the same time.

Lizards are one of the reptile species. They are found in most of the continent in the

world, especially arid zone. Mostly their habitat would locate on the ground and trees. Also,

the desert is the place where some species like desert lizards live in. As we all know, the

lizards are non-poisonous, but in reality, there are two species that are poisonous, which

rarely can find in the environment. Their colour is changeable, and this allows them to

camouflage through their surrounding environment. For example, a lizard blends themselves

into brown colour to match with the tree to hide the snake which considered as its predator.

There are some lizards that eat plants, but most of the lizards eat the insects such as flies,
snails, spiders, scorpions, and etc. Therefore, the lizards are important to the environment
[6]
because they are the insects controller .

Scorpions are the hazardous species that mostly found among the arid community. In

the ecosystem, there is no specific species for the scorpions feed on. During the foraging

season, the scorpion would hunt at night or in another word they are nocturnal species.

Moreover, it is due to the particular scorpions habit either it would leave a great distance

from its habit or not. In case the scorpions cannot hunt the prey in the first night they would

continue in the night after that until they are successful. According to the University of

Arizona Cooperative Extension, the scorpions feed almost all of the smaller species, mostly

insects that exist among their community like the centipedes, crickets or lizards is also one of

[3]
the scorpions prey . Therefore, the dominant species that the particular scorpions will feed

on would due to the species richness and relative abundance.

Consequently, like the other community, there would possibly be the predators that

would balance out their population too. Snakes, Owls, grasshopper mice, coyotes, bats and

some of the lizards are the common species that feed on the scorpions. To enumerate, the list

of the organisms are just some of the predators because of the richness of nutritious in

[2]
scorpions; therefore, about 150 distinct species aim to feed on them .

The oldest fossil of the scorpion is approximately 400 million years. Additionally,

they also were the firsts arthropods that engage in the terrestrial environment. Henceforth, the

scientists predict that they would have an important role in the ecosystem, which is the

[4]
bio-indicator. The bio-indicators can use to evaluate the community surrounded . It is the

species that can help us studied about the particular area even deeper in each aspect.

To be specific the interaction between lizards and scorpion, according to Journal of

Arid Environments, the researchers found a lot of lizards and the scorpion on Columbretes
islands located in the area of Mediterranean, Spain; they make the experiment about the

interaction between those two types of animal as the prey and predator, especially focus on

the lizards as a predator. In the first experiment, the researchers use the alive and dead

scorpions as an independent variable to observe the behaviour of the lizards. As the result,

female lizards are more likely to ignore and avoid to attack the scorpions more than male

more than male whether the scorpions are dead or alive, and female lizards also flee the alive

scorpions more than male. Another experiment, the researchers use the different size of alive

scorpions: intermediate size and large size, to observe the behaviour as same as the first

experiment. The data table shows that the response of female lizards is trying not to have an

interaction with the scorpions more than males as if the first experiment. Therefore, we can

conclude that the response of the lizard depends on the sex of lizard and the size and

existence of the scorpion, and the female lizards are more likely to avoid to have and

[2]
interaction with the scorpions more than males .

Conversely, from the Castillas research notify that during his observation he is

accidentally seen the scorpions hatchling the juvenile lizards. After bring them back to the

habitat before they are going to inject the venom into the lizards. Although those lizards

[2]
might die because of the scorpions venom, but it might cause nothing to the adult lizards .

In the event that the scorpions are all disappeared in the community would directly

affect all every single continent except Antarctica because there is the only continent that

deprived of the scorpions. Recall from the lessons concept, the area that has high density of

the scorpions the predators would definitely rely on them as the dominant resources. Under

this circumstance, those predators like snakes, owls or even lizards would certainly have to

adapt through this incident. Whereas, if they could not adapt to this situation specifically in

some case when one species need longer time to adjust their behaviour. By the same token,
this will affect as the chain because each species has their own niche in the ecosystem, and

when one disappears another would surely be affected like domino action. After all, that area

would perhaps to lose that species. Besides, the experiment from Travis Longcore resulted

that the spider population grow twice when the scorpions are removed from that particular

[4]
area . We predicted that some scorpions might also feed on the spider in that area. Hence,

when they disappear the number of the spider increase dramatically.

In contrast, as we have mentioned that the lizards are the insect controller. Therefore,

if the lizards get taken out of the community then the balance that used to be there would be

broken down. The insects population which is the lizards prey would grow larger. These

insects mainly feed on the plants, which are very important in providing shelter for many

species. The insects that used to be killed by the lizard would now survive and more of them

would feed on the plants, which could eventually cause them to die. Removing the lizards

would have a domino effect which is quite similar to removing the scorpion from the

community.

Likewise, if lizards and scorpions disappear from the community then that area would

have numerous amount of insect because both of them feed on insects. In this case, if it is the

area that people do the agriculture, the insects might damage their crops. Additionally, the

area that the mosquitos are all around can spread a lot quicker of malaria, dengue fever, or

many other diseases that these kind of insects are the carrier. Further, both of them have

similar predators; Thus, those species would lack their source of food. Later on, those species

may extinct.

As has been noted, the situation in this relation is when one organism feeds on

another. As well as, the another organism resulted in death; therefore, this kind of interaction

would call predation. However, these two species are distinctively when compared to the
other predation interaction. Thus, in the different occasion, both can act as either prey or

predator, so this relationship can be called as the Both-sided predation. Even though there is

obviously prey and predator in each condition, but overall it is due to its size and the

preference of the individuals. Also, the result in the environment that we assume to remove

one or both species would cause the parallel effect because they mostly feed on the insects.

However, these would result whether a severe situation or mild, which depend on each

situation.
 References

1. Brownell, P. and Polis (eds.) (2001). Scorpion Biology and Research Oxford
University Press, Oxford, U.K.
2. Castilla, A., & Herrel, A. (2009). The scorpion Buthus occitanus as a profitable prey
for the endemic lizard Podarcis atrata in the volcanic Columbretes islands
(Mediterranean, Spain). Journal of Arid Environments.
3. Gouge, D. H. (n.d.). The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. Retrieved from
http://extension.arizona.edu/pubs/az1223.pdf
4. Longcore, T. (2003). Terrestrial Arthropods as Indicators of Ecological Restoration
Success in Coastal Sage Scrub (California, U.S.A.). Restoration Ecology, 11,
397-409.
5. Reece, J. B., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V., & Jackson,
R. B. (2012). Campbell biology (10th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
6. Reptiles | Lizard. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from
http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/lizard