??? What do we mean by "Field and Lab Methods" ? These would mean the procedures or protocols that have been suggested for people who would like to capture, keep and study scorpions either in their natural habitats (the so called "Field") or in their own premises (the "Lab").

Field methods

First - how do we capture scorpions? Well, you've got to find them first ! As scorpions are mainly nocturnal creatures, most of the scorpion-hunting would have to be done at night, where it is difficult to see things clearly, if at all. In the day, finding of scorpions can be accomplished by turning over prospective hiding places, like under large rocks or rotting trees. This method, however, is too unproductive, as it is estimated that less than 1% of the scorpion population could be found and studied. Another method deployed in the day would be by traps - baited or unbaited. This does work, but is baisd in the sense that they capture mostly vagile scorpions (mature males moving during the mating season) Therefore, searching at night would be a much better choice. How can scorpions, being so small, be detected at night ? Easy. We utilize the fact that scorpions glow under ultra-violet (UV) lights. Therefore, UV light can be utilized, and the wavelenth used should be between 320 to 400 nm, as in this range the scorpions will strongly fluoresce, yet will not harm the eye. This method is superior, for it does not disturb the normal behavior of the scorpions. Homing, orientation, feeding and mating can be observed easily without disturbing the animals' normal behavior, and produce more consistent and factualy results. One caution is to watch out for snakes, because although scorpions fluoresce, snakes don't ! Wear high, thick boots, and watch where you step.

Laboratory methods

1. Preservation Scorpions can be easily preserved due to their thick outer layer of chitin. The old way was to drop live specimens into alcohol, but this was not desirable as the speciments usually became contorted as their legs tend to fold under, their colours darkened and the internal organs are not well-preserved. The proper preservation of scorpions should follow the following procedures (Willaims, 1968 and Newlands, 1969b) : Specimens should be killed by heat shock, immersing the live animal in boiling or hot water at 90C for about 5 seconds. Thereafter, the specimens should be fixed using 12 parts formaldehyde (commercial strength) with 30 parts isopropyl (99%), 2 parts glacial acetic acid, and 56 parts distilled water. Fixing for 12-48 hours will be enough, and specimens can be stored in 80% ehtyl alcohol. 2. PREPARING LIVE TISSUE After the tissues have been dissected out from the scorpion after having anaesthetized the scorpion with chloroform, the tissue is perfused with Ringer's solution. Scorpion saline has an osmotic presure of 550mOSmol/l, a pH of 7.4 and has the ionic concentrations in nM : Sodium ions: 281.5 Potassium ions: 8.0 Calcium ions: 10.0 Magnesium ions: 20.0 Chloride ions: 260.0 Hydrogen carbonate: 1.5 Sulphate: 44.0