Emperor Scorpion

Emperor Scorpion

The exotic invertebrate I chose to do my presentation on is the emperor scorpion, or scientifically known as the Pandinus Imperator. This unique creature belongs to the phylum “Arthropoda” and to the class “Arachnid.” Some other animals in this class are mites, ticks and spiders. An adult emperor scorpion averages approximately 20 centimeters across in size. The life span of the emperor scorpions usually ranges in between 5 and 8 years. The colours of these scorpions can be seen to be either a bluish green or brownish black. It has bilateral symmetry and 3 germ layers and is protosome meaning its mouth grows before it's anus.

Body Structure-The Emperor scorpion consists of two claws like pincers that are of a gritty texture. These scorpions rarely use there tail to sting but instead use their strong claws to catch and hold prey. The front part of the body is known as the prosoma. This part of the body consists of four sections which are connected by a whitish membrane that expands when a female s pregnant. Each section has a pair of legs attached. After the fourth pair of legs, there is the pectine which is a structure similar to a comb. This pectine is longer in males than in females. Finally there is the tail, also known as the metasoma which is a long curving structure that hangs above the rest of the body. Inside it contains venom and when it stings the venom is released into the victim. In most cases the sting of the emperor scorpion is only equivalent to the amount of pain received when stung by a bee, but in some species the pain emitted by the sting can be much more severe. For movement, the emperor scorpion uses it 2 legs per body segment. It crawls along the grounds surface and the tail is used for balance.

                                                          

Digestive/Excretory System-The emperor scorpion eats a variety of things such as locusts, crickets, grasshoppers and even small rodents. Instead of teeth, the emperor scorpion has chelicerae which grind up the food taken in. once the food has been consumed; it goes to the oral cavity which consists of hairs that strain out indigestible food. Then the food passes through the pharynx and then on to the esophagus. After, the food reaches the stomach. In here it is broken down further. Because there is little indigestible matter, there is little fecal matter. But whatever waste is left is removed out the anus.

                                 

Circulatory System-The Emperor scorpion consists of an open circulatory system. Their body contains blood vessels and the blood contains hemocyanin rather than hemoglobin.  The tubular heart of the scorpion runs approximately the length of the metosoma. There are small arteries that carry blood to the nerve cord. The blood vessels pump the blood to the heart.

                 

Respiration System- The type of respiration that the Emperor scorpion uses is book lungs. These book lungs are found just under the abdomen and are inside of hardened pockets. The hemocyanin containing blood circulates throughout the Lamellae. Lamellae are structures which are attacked upon one another with each having a small space of air in between.

               

Reproduction- Like many other organisms, emperor scorpions use pheromones to locate a mating partner. Once located, the male grabs the pincers of the female and begins to do a shaking action called “juddering”. After, the male drops a spermatophore and the female lowers her abdomen to pick up the sperm packet and place it in her genital opening. After seven months, a litter of 14-40 young scorpions are produced. The young spend most of their time on the mothers back.

                                        

Some other interesting facts about the emperor scorpion is that it glows a greenish colour when put underneath an ultra-violet light. Also the Emperor scorpion is the one of the largest mass scorpions but are not the longest. Another interesting fact is that emperor scorpions are white coloured when they are born. Although they have several eyes, they can not see images but cant differ light from dark. The emperor scorpion is noceternal, meaning it hunts at night  and sleeps during the day.

                                 

I don't love the emperor scorpion. I just chose it randomly because we had to pick an invertebrate. At first I thought it was scary/dangerous but then I found out it's a panzy :)

Earthworm Dissection

On Friday, November 30, my biology 11 class and I participated in an earthworm dissection  Our teacher, Ms. Ionnone brought in earthworms and we were put in groups of two. One worm per pair. We would begin this project by sticking pins into either side of the worm to stretch it out. Then we would slit the worm straight down the middle and open it up like a wardrobe. Then we pinned each side of the worm that was split down the middle to either side so we could see the insides easily. We then looked at the internal organs of the worn including the pharynx,heart, the nephridia etc. In class we studied the earthworms digestive system and how it operates. With the dissection we were able to physically view the digestive system first hand which was cool.  Another system we learned about in class was the circulatory system. We were able to see the several hearts located in the worm and how they are connected. Overall, the dissection was beneficial to me after I got over the smell and how gross it looked. It expanded my knowledge on the understanding of the earthworms internal organs and systems.

1. The name that describes the pumping organs of the earthworm are aortic arches. Also known as hearts.

         

                                                                                              

2.  The food ingested by the earthworm primarily enters the mouth of the earthworm and then reaches the pharynx. After it reaches the pharynx it enters the esophagus. Then the food is onto the crop and after is broken down in the gizzard. The final point in which the food goes to before exited the body is the anus. This is where the worm eliminates its waste products. It is made sure throughout the tract that all nutrients are absorbed by the worm.

3. The part of the earthworm that is located directly above the pharynx is the brain which, to the rest of the body, is connected by the ventral nerve.

4. There are two parts of the earthworm excretory system that we saw. The anus, which disposes of the worms waste and the nephridia which is basically the kidney of the worm.

5. One way to find out if an earthworm eats soil is to open up its digestive track and physically see whether there is soil present.

6. The earthworms setae helps it be well-adapted to its habitat/environment because it helps the worm move throughout the dirt.

7. The earthworms digestive system is adapted to ingest large amounts of food for its size and take out all the nutrients in the food. The, the worm is able to turn the food remains into fertilizer as it is excreted from it body.

8. If we were to dissect past segment 32 what we would see is the remains of all of the intestines, anus and some of the nervous system.

9. Earthworms are hermaphroditic, meaning they posses both male and female reproduction parts. In this case they have both eggs and sperm. The worms have sperm packets inside of them as we saw in our dissection and one worm would attach to another and the egg would be passed through to the other worm and fertilized, thus reproduction would occur.

Aquarium Adventure

On Thursday, November 22 my Biology 11 class and I traveled to the Vancouver aquarium in search of a better understanding of the biological world of certain organisms. What we learned the week before our trip was all about different types of animals that vary in types of phylum and the way they inhabit there habitat. At the aquarium, we got to experience different types of jellyfish and sponges. I saw jellyfish that were from Cnidarian phylum. Also in the week previous to our trip we learned about the Porifera Phylum which consists of aquatic invertebrate animals that compromises the sponges. The reason for this trip was to get a visual experience to go along with the knowledge that was gained in the classroom. We got to see, first hand, the environment that which these unique creatures inhabit. When we went into the hands-on room, we got to touch some different types of ocean critters. Some of them were sea cucumbers, sea anemones, sea urchins and starfish. The creature I found the most interesting to touch was the sea anemone because when I touched it, it felt sticky and non-harmful. This is because the harpoons the anemone shoots out are not strong enough to break through human skin and sting us, so they just feel sticky when touched. Overall the trip was a success and I gained a lot for knowledge when I left from when I arrived.

 

The symbiotic relationship between the Clown Anemone Fish and sea anemones is that the Clown Fish defends the anemone from polyp-eating fish like the butterfly fish which it chases off, and it return the anemone protects the Clown Fish from predators by letting it  live in it. The anemone protects it by stinging the predators as they approach. 

Sea otter spend so much time cleaning their fur coats because that is what keeps them warm. they have to avoid letting oil and other polluting substances in their fur because then its insulation is effected.

At first, in the 1900's, sea otters were found mostly in Alaska and California, but they were a popular attraction when it came to hunting because of there fur. It was made illegal to hunt these animals until the late 1900's when they were reintroduced in Alaska and California.

The colours of the sea anemone's were green,purple and red.

My favorite marine invertebrate is the jellyfish. Jellyfish solely rely on there tentacles for protection, attacking and transportation. the jelly fish use their tentacles to sting predators when being attacked or prey when attacking. they also use them to move around in the ocean.

The scientific name for a beluga whale is "Dolphinapterus Leucas". There are 2 at the Vancouver aquarium.

The Potbelly Seahorse uses its tail to move around, it swings back very quickly as it transports in the water.

This is Brain coral and it looks very similar to the human brain.

This is a starry flounder. This flounder has pigments that allow it to change colour which benefits it when it comes to camouflage. Another adaptation it has to help camouflager itself is the ability to make its tail flap dirt on itself which hides it from predators.

The movement of the moon jellyfish could be described as flapping inside out and pushing the water behind it. The adaptation they have when feeding on plankton is that plankton land on the jellyfish's mucus and get stuck and the jellyfish feeds on it.

The purpose of those white suction cups is to help the octopus feel and taste, it uses those suction cups to catch prey and it then uses its beak to eat the prey.

The different feeding types of the steller sea lions are squid and fish. These sea lions eat approximately 5% of their body weight each day.

The Caiman came from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

The Caiman is a blackish/brown colour and I think this is a good colour for it because it helps it camouflage when it is sneaking up on prey before it attacks.

the largest fish in the aquarium is the Arapaima.

This fish is the Tamabaqui, it is a vegetarian fish that feeds on zoo plankton.

Piranha's are a big threat to humans when humans are swimming in waters infested with these flesh eating fish.

sharks are composed of zero bones. Instead they have a structure made up of cartilage.

Some other animals that were found in the shark tank were Stingrays, Green Sea Turtle, and Red-Tail butterfly fish.

The Giant Red sea urchin which has the scientific name of Strongylocentrotus. The urchin has pointy spikes that point away from it that keep predators away.

Archer fish catch their food by going up to the surface of the water and bringing down insects by spitting on them.

The name of the Sea Turtle in the tropic zone is Chelonia Mydas.

Fungi Blog

On Friday, November 16 my Biology11 class and I went on a fungi hunt. We searched through Fleetwood Park in search of any types of living fungi. My partners were Doug and Akash. Througout the trip we found many different kinds of mushrooms, but we quickly realized that tthe average club fungi was the most common type. Also we found types of algae growing on the stumps of trees. It was very slimy and different shades of green and sometimes even yellow. What we learned in class that I ended up seeing was that jelly fungus comes in different colours. Also I leared that mushrooms have little spores underneath them which i saw in the park that they use to reproduce. The spores drift away by wind, water,animals etc. Another type of mushroom that we learned about in class and observed in fleetwood park was the one that grows outward on the side of trees which is called bracket fungi. Overall I feel the fungi hunt benfited all of the class because it gave us a chance to observe what we were taught in class.