Bizarre body
Scorpions strike terror in many people and have been both hated and admired since ancient times. This is probably due to their fearsome look, with pincers called pedipalps at one end and a stinger filled with venom at the other. Scorpions are not insects but arachnids, like spiders, and have eight legs and two main body regions, the prosoma, or cephalothorax, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen. The prosoma has two eyes on top and two to five lateral eyes along each side (as many as five pairs).
Even with all those eyes, scorpions can't see very well! Yet the sensitivity of their eyes is among the highest in all arthropods and dependent on the kinds of habitats in which they live. In general terms, however, their eyes mostly tell movement and light from dark.
The scorpion's four pairs of legs are attached to the prosoma as well. Scorpions find their way through sensory structures in their legs, by feeling along with brush-like structures called pectines attached to the underside of the abdomen, and through fine sensory hairs to detect vibrations. Male scorpions also use the pectines to find an available female, and newborn scorpions use them to recognize their mother. Though scorpions have no true “tail,” the appearance of one on the abdomen is called the metasoma, and it ends with a sharp stinger and venom glands.