Scorpiones  

Most scorpions reproduce sexually, and most species have male and female individuals. However, some species, such as Hottentotta hottentotta, Hottentotta caboverdensis, Liocheles australasiae, Tityus columbianus, Tityus metuendus, Tityus serrulatus, Tityus stigmurus, Tityus trivittatus and Tityus urugayensis, reproduce through parthenogenesis, a process in which unfertilised eggs develop into living embryos. Parthenogenic reproduction starts following the scorpion's final moult to maturity and continues thereafter.

Sexual reproduction is accomplished by the transfer of a spermatophore from the male to the female; scorpions possess a complex courtship and mating ritual to effect this transfer. Mating starts with the male and female locating and identifying each other using a mixture of pheromones and vibrational communication. Once they have satisfied the other that they are of opposite sex and of the correct species, mating can commence.

The courtship starts with the male grasping the female's pedipalps with his own; the pair then perform a "dance" called the "promenade à deux". In this "dance," the male leads the female around searching for a suitable place to deposit his spermatophore. The courtship ritual can involve several other behaviours, such as juddering and a cheliceral kiss, in which the male's chelicerae – pincers – grasp the female's in a smaller more intimate version of the male's grasping the female's pedipalps and in some cases injecting a small amount of his venom into her pedipalp or on the edge of her cephalothorax, probably as a means of pacifying the female.

When the male has identified a suitable location, he deposits the spermatophore and then guides the female over it. This allows the spermatophore to enter her genital opercula, which triggers release of the sperm, thus fertilising the female. The mating process can take from 1 to 25+ hours and depends on the ability of the male to find a suitable place to deposit his spermatophore. If mating continues too long, the female may lose interest, ending the process.

Once the mating is complete, the male and female will separate. The male will generally retreat quickly, most likely to avoid being cannibalised by the female, although sexual cannibalism is infrequent with scorpions.

Scorpions generally sit in an alert position, pedipalps open, waiting for approaching prey. They feed upon invertebrates, especially insects and other arachnids. The postabdomen is raised over the body to curve forward and stab the prey, which is then caught and held by the pedipalps, but the pedipalps alone can also subdue the prey (Bub and Bowerman 1979).

Scorpiones (scorpion, spiders) preys on:
Orthoptera
Tenebrionidae
Curculionidae
Aclerda
Thysanura
Isoptera
Scarabaeidae
Pogonomyrmex
cactus weevils
Moneilema
Palo Verde weevil
Diptera

Based on studies in:
Namibia, Namib Desert (Desert or dune)
USA: Arizona, Sonora Desert (Desert or dune)

This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.

Scorpions use spermatophores for indirect sperm transfer (Ruppert et al. 2004). Though there are differences between species, males and females engage in an elaborate courtship ritual in which the male and female walk backward and forward “hand-in-hand”, until the male finds an appropriate place to deposit the spermatophore, which the female then takes up into the gonopore.

Scorpions are born viviparously and resemble adults, and parents invest an unusually long amount of time investing care in their offspring, compared to other terrestrial arthropods (Ruppert et al. 2004). Development continues for a year, and eventually molt four to seven times in their 25-year lifespan. Scorpion populations’ intrinsic growth rates (r) can be lower than that of whales and elephants.