Portrait of Carl-2

Carl was a biologist who studied spiders and scorpions. He was a professor at California State University Bakersfield (CSUB).

When Carl started his PhD research, he was interested in a phenomenon called aggressive mimicry which is “when organisms look like other organisms in order to lure their prey. There was an hypothesis that the glow that scorpions have was actually used to lure in moths.” Fluorescent glow phenomena is seen on the scorpion below.

Carl also explained that there’s “a structure called a pectine which looks like a feather sticking to either either side. It’s a chemo-sensory organ which is basically a nose. The pectines on the female tend to be fairly short and the males have one that’s much longer because they are the ones who go looking for the female.”

Carl had the Scorpion in the photograph below about two years. He caught her out in the field close to the school. California State Bakersfield is probably one of the best places in the world to study spiders and scorpions because it is an excellent habitat for these species.

You can see the Pectine in this photo

Fluorescent glow

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please.