Unveiling the role of chitin arrangement and inorganic additives in scorpion’s stinger

For predating and defence, scorpions largely rely on their sharp stingers to inject venom, subjecting these stingers to extreme mechanical loads. In contrast to other arthropods, e.g. crustaceans, who employ mineral for cuticle hardening, spiders and scorpions (class Arachnida) fabricate hard and sharp parts entirely without mineral. Alternatively, they often use locally elevated levels of metal ions such as Zn and Mn, as they are also found in scorpion stingers. A recent experiment at BM05, however, showed strong variations of metal ion type and distribution, both between species and in different locations of the stinger, suggesting substantial variation of strategies or even metal ion functionalites different from just mechanics. By high resolution XRD and XRF mapping, we wish to get insight into the structure, composition and functionality of scorpion stingers, a fascinating, but not fully explored type of biological tissue.