How to translate text using browser tools
1 October 2014 Exploration of Refuge Preference in the Arizona Bark Scorpion (Scorpiones: Buthidae)
Christopher Stephen Bibbs, Sarah Elizabeth Bengston, Dawn H. Gouge
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

The ongoing difficulty in understanding how Centruroides sculpturatus (Ewing) uses the built environment has prompted this study in exploring refuge choices in a school environment and in laboratory behavioral assays. Radio telemetry tags were used at an urban site heavily populated with C. sculpturatus to track scorpions for a period of 21 d from 1 to 21 August 2013. Complimentary laboratory work tested scorpions in refuge choice arenas targeting variables of four crevice widths—14.0, 9.3, 7.0, and 4.6 mm—or of a vertical versus horizontal orientation preference. These crevice sizes were picked as a response to crevices being naturally used in the field. Telemetry and observations tallied significant preference for artificial structural harborage. Ninety-five percent of the structure refuge use occurred in hollow block walls. Vegetative harborage, debris, and underground burrows were not selected with any significance compared with each other or structures. Generalized additive models (GAMs) indicated the strongest predictive power from individual preference. The behavioral choice assays yielded a significant preference for the largest of crevice widths offered, 14.0 mm and to a lesser extent 9.3 mm, both horizontally and vertically. GAMs for these assays indicated size as the strongest predictive factor in choices. The orientation tests and GAMs showed individual preference driving choice favoring vertical planes. Observations about negative geotaxis in assay and refuge use details from the field are also reported.

© 2014 Entomological Society of America
Christopher Stephen Bibbs, Sarah Elizabeth Bengston, and Dawn H. Gouge "Exploration of Refuge Preference in the Arizona Bark Scorpion (Scorpiones: Buthidae)," Environmental Entomology 43(5), 1345-1353, (1 October 2014). https://doi.org/10.1603/EN14099
Received: 10 April 2014; Accepted: 11 August 2014; Published: 1 October 2014
JOURNAL ARTICLE
9 PAGES

This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
+ SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

KEYWORDS
behavior
Centruroides
preference
refuge
urban habitat
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top