Short- and long-term effects of an extreme case of autotomy: does "tail" loss and subsequent constipation decrease the locomotor performance of male and female scorpions?

In many taxa, individuals voluntarily detach a body part as a form to increase their chances of escaping predation. This defense mechanism, known as autotomy, has several consequences, such as changes in locomotor performance that may affect fitness. Scorpions of the genus Ananteris autotomize the "tail", which in fact corresponds to the last abdominal segments.

Fitness Implications of Nonlethal Injuries in Scorpions: Females, but Not Males, Pay Reproductive Costs.

AbstractThe ability to detach a body part in response to a predation attempt is known as autotomy, and it is perhaps the most intensively studied form of nonlethal injury in animals. Although autotomy enhances survival, it may impose reproductive costs on both males and females. We experimentally investigated how autotomy affects the reproductive success of males and females of a scorpion species.

Macroecology of Sexual Selection: A Predictive Conceptual Framework for Large-Scale Variation in Reproductive Traits.

Abiotic factors exert direct and indirect influences on behavioral, morphological, and life-history traits. Because some of these traits are related to reproduction, there is a causal link between climatic conditions and the expression of reproductive traits. This link allows us to generate predictions on how reproductive traits vary in large geographic scales.

Scorpion sheds 'tail' to escape: consequences and implications of autotomy in scorpions (Buthidae: Ananteris).

Autotomy, the voluntary shedding or detachment of a body part at a determined cleavage plane, is a common anti-predation defense mechanism in several animal taxa, including arthropods. Among arachnids, autotomy has been observed in harvestmen, mites, and spiders, always involving the loss of legs. Autotomy of the opisthosoma (abdomen) was recently reported in a single species of the Neotropical buthid scorpion genus Ananteris Thorell, 1891, but few details were revealed.