Abstract
Scorpions use venoms as weapons to improve prey capture and predator defense, and these benefits must be balanced against costs associated with its use. Venom costs involve direct energetic costs associated with the production and storage of toxins, and indirect fitness costs arising from reduced venom availability. In order to reduce these costs, scorpions optimize their venom use via evolutionary responses, phenotypic plasticity, and behavioral mechanisms. Over long timescales, evolutionary adaptation to environments with different selection pressures appears to have contributed to interspecific variation in venomcomposition and stingermorphology. Furthermore, plastic responses may allow scorpions to modify and optimize their venom composition as pressures change. Optimal venomuse can vary when facing each prey itemand potential predator encountered, and therefore scorpions display a range of behaviors to optimize their venom use to the particular situation. These behaviors include varying sting rates, employing dry stings, and further altering the volume and composition of venom injected. Whilst these cost-reducing mechanisms are recognized in scorpions, relatively little is understood about the factors that influence them. Here, we review evidence of the costs associated with venom use in scorpions and discuss the mechanisms that have evolved to minimize them.
Highlights
Venom Costs and Optimization in ScorpionsIn order to reduce these costs, scorpions optimize their venom use via evolutionary responses, phenotypic plasticity, and behavioral mechanisms
Venomous organisms inject chemical cocktails into their predators and prey in order to disrupt normal biological functioning in their target (Fry et al, 2009; Casewell et al, 2013)
This study provided the first evidence for adaptive plasticity in venom compositions, and suggested it has evolved as a mechanism to allow for the optimization of venom use (Gangur et al, 2017)
Summary
In order to reduce these costs, scorpions optimize their venom use via evolutionary responses, phenotypic plasticity, and behavioral mechanisms. Optimal venom use can vary when facing each prey item and potential predator encountered, and scorpions display a range of behaviors to optimize their venom use to the particular situation. These behaviors include varying sting rates, employing dry stings, and further altering the volume and composition of venom injected. Whilst these cost-reducing mechanisms are recognized in scorpions, relatively little is understood about the factors that influence them. We review evidence of the costs associated with venom use in scorpions and discuss the mechanisms that have evolved to minimize them
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