One April night in Israel’s Jordan Valley, Yoram Zvik uses a UV light to search for scorpions near a group of marching ants. The light reveals a scorpion with a brilliant blue-green fluorescence, and upon closer inspection, Zvik discovers tiny living specks on the scorpion’s back. These stowaways do not fluoresce under UV light, which makes them hard to detect. Zvik first discovered this network of tiny tenants in 2016, and further research revealed that the scorpions have an appetite for ant larvae. Additionally, the scorpions were found to have pseudoscorpions gripping their backs, which was a surprising discovery.
2024-02-08 10:00:00
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