---
title: "What the sources say about the Arizona Bark Scorpion | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "38 claims from the Arizona Bark Scorpion profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/arizona-bark-scorpion-1.webp"
canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/arizona-bark-scorpion/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Arizona Bark Scorpion (*Centruroides sculpturatus*)

> 38 claims from the Arizona Bark Scorpion profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Arizona Bark Scorpion](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/arizona-bark-scorpion/)

## Scorpions. Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, University of Arizona.

https://azpoison.com/venom/scorpions

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| the best climber among Arizona's thirty scorpion species | Only one of the 30 species of scorpions found in Arizona is regarded as life-threatening: the bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus). ... It is also the best climber of the scorpion species. (note: '30' worded as 'thirty' in prose. APDIC's climber sentence sits in a page about Arizona's 30 species, so the scope is read as Arizona's scorpions.) |
| Not Evaluated | the bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus) (note: GBIF's copy of the Red List returns NOT_EVALUATED for Centruroides sculpturatus Ewing, 1928 (usage key 6894244, checked 2026-09-17).) |
| Scorpions shelter under debris, logs and bricks | Clear away debris, trash, logs and bricks where scorpions like to live. (note: APDIC's prevention-tips line about where scorpions live, which is scorpions in general, so the line says 'Scorpions'.) |
| The best climber among Arizona's scorpion species | It is also the best climber of the scorpion species. |
| It reaches only an inch and a half at maturity, comparatively small for a scorpion | Reaching only an inch and a half at maturity, it is a comparatively small scorpion. |
| its more slender tail segments and pincers may set it apart from the state's less toxic species | The bark scorpion may be distinguished from other less toxic species by its more slender tail segments and pincers. (note: 'the state's' is Arizona, the page's subject; the source says 'other less toxic species', not that they are bulkier.) |
| Of the thirty species of scorpions found in Arizona, the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center regards only this one as life-threatening | Only one of the 30 species of scorpions found in Arizona is regarded as life-threatening: the bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus). (note: '30' worded as 'thirty' in prose. Attributed to the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, whose page this is, and kept at its 'regarded as'.) |
| calls it the best climber of the scorpion species | It is also the best climber of the scorpion species. |
| A scorpion sting can cause immediate local pain with minimal swelling, and numbness and tingling that may travel across the body | Scorpion stings can cause immediate local pain with minimal swelling. Numbness and tingling are frequently reported and may travel across the body. (note: APDIC's symptom list covers scorpion stings generally, so the sentence says 'A scorpion sting' and keeps 'can' and 'may'.) |
| Small children are at the highest risk of severe reactions | Small children are at the highest risk of severe reactions. |
| Scorpions are relatively inactive during daylight hours, and the majority of stings reported to the center occur at night during the warm summer months. | Scorpions are relatively inactive during the daylight hours. The majority of stings reported to the poison center occur at night during the warm summer months. (note: Scorpion-wide on APDIC's page, and worded at that scope.) |

## Hopp, Arvidson & Razak (2017). Arizona bark scorpion venom resistance in the pallid bat, Antrozous pallidus. PLOS ONE.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183215

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| North America's most venomous scorpion | the Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus), North America's most venomous scorpion (note: The paper asserts the rank flatly in its introduction, so the tagline carries the paper's own words at the paper's strength; the body and FAQ 1 attribute it to the researchers.) |
| Scorpion venom is a cocktail of toxins, and some of them switch on voltage-gated sodium channels, the microscopic gates nerve cells use to fire, causing intense pain | Scorpion venom is a cocktail of toxins, some of which activate voltage-gated sodium ion channels, causing intense pain. (note: The source's scope is scorpion venom generally, so the sentence says 'Scorpion venom', not 'bark scorpion venom'. 'the microscopic gates nerve cells use to fire' explains voltage-gated sodium channels.) |
| Researchers who study it call the Arizona bark scorpion North America's most venomous scorpion. | the Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus), North America's most venomous scorpion (note: Attributed, with no causal link to the mechanism above it: the paper does not say the rank follows from the channel effect.) |
| High-speed video of pallid bats hunting bark scorpions shows the scorpions stinging, sometimes multiple times, with none of the bats reacting during or after the encounter, and four of the five bats filmed consumed the scorpion at the end of it | AZ bark scorpions stung pallid bats, sometimes multiple times, during a hunt. Five high-speed video recordings provided a clear view of the scorpion behavior during pallid bat attacks ... Bats 1, 3-5 consumed the scorpion at the end of the encounter, demonstrating that pallid bats eat Arizona bark scorpions. None of the bats reacted to stings during or after the encounter. (note: Five recordings; bats 1 and 3 to 5 ate the scorpion, which is four of the five. Bat 2 abandoned the attack, so the page does not say every bat ate one.) |
| Direct injection of venom at the mouse lethal dose, the concentration that kills half a group of mice, had no effect on bat behavior either, and at the highest dose tested three of four bats showed no effects | direct injection of venom at mouse LD 50 concentrations (1.5 mg/kg) has no effect on bat behavior. At the highest concentration tested (10 mg/kg), three out of four bats showed no effects. (note: 'the mouse lethal dose, the concentration that kills half a group of mice' glosses the paper's 'mouse LD 50 concentrations'; LD50 is by definition the dose lethal to half the animals tested. The three-of-four figure is kept at the highest dose tested, where the paper reports it, not at the mouse LD50.) |
| Researchers who study its venom describe it as North America's most venomous scorpion. Scorpion venom is a cocktail of toxins, and some of them switch on voltage-gated sodium channels, the tiny gates nerve cells use to fire, which causes intense pain. | Scorpion venom is a cocktail of toxins, some of which activate voltage-gated sodium ion channels, causing intense pain. ... the Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus), North America's most venomous scorpion |
| Researchers found that the pallid bat is stung multiple times during a hunt without any noticeable effect on its behavior. Injecting venom at the mouse lethal dose had no effect on bat behavior either, and at the highest dose tested, three of four bats showed no effects. | Our results show that the pallid bat is stung multiple times during a hunt without any noticeable effect on behavior. In addition, direct injection of venom at mouse LD 50 concentrations (1.5 mg/kg) has no effect on bat behavior. At the highest concentration tested (10 mg/kg), three out of four bats showed no effects. |

## Rowe et al. (2013). Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel in Grasshopper Mice Defends Against Bark Scorpion Toxin. Science.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1236451

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Bark scorpion venom induces pain in many mammals, house mice, rats and humans among them, by switching on a nerve channel called Nav1.7, and it has no effect on a second channel, Nav1.8 | Bark scorpion venom induces pain in many mammals (house mice, rats, humans) by activating the voltage-gated Na(+) channel Nav1.7, but has no effect on Nav1.8. (note: The abstract says 'bark scorpion venom' without a binomial, so the sentence keeps that scope.) |
| Grasshopper mice carry a changed Nav1.8 that binds bark scorpion toxins and blocks the action potential, the electrical pulse a nerve passes along, turning the venom into a painkiller | Grasshopper mice Nav1.8 has amino acid variants that bind bark scorpion toxins and inhibit Na(+) currents, blocking action potential propagation and inducing analgesia. (note: 'grasshopper mice', not 'southern grasshopper mice': the abstract names no species. No 'first' either, since the abstract states no order of binding. 'the electrical pulse a nerve passes along' explains the source's 'action potential propagation'.) |
| They regularly attack and consume bark scorpions, grooming only briefly when stung | grasshopper mice regularly attack and consume bark scorpions, grooming only briefly when stung |
| Bark scorpion venom induces pain in many mammals, house mice, rats and humans among them, by switching on a nerve channel called Nav1.7, and it has no effect on a second channel, Nav1.8. Grasshopper mice carry a changed Nav1.8 that binds bark scorpion toxins and blocks the action potential, the electrical pulse a nerve passes along, turning the venom into a painkiller. They regularly attack and consume bark scorpions, grooming only briefly when stung. | grasshopper mice regularly attack and consume bark scorpions, grooming only briefly when stung. Bark scorpion venom induces pain in many mammals (house mice, rats, humans) by activating the voltage-gated Na(+) channel Nav1.7, but has no effect on Nav1.8. Grasshopper mice Nav1.8 has amino acid variants that bind bark scorpion toxins and inhibit Na(+) currents, blocking action potential propagation and inducing analgesia. |

## Cahalan (1975). Modification of sodium channel gating in frog myelinated nerve fibres by Centruroides sculpturatus scorpion venom. The Journal of Physiology.

https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1975.sp010810

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| In an experiment on single frog nerve fibres, published in 1975, the venom brought about repetitive firing, some of it spontaneous, and eventually left the fibre's membrane unable to fire | The effect of Centruroides sculpturatus scorpion venom on single frog myelinated nerve fibres was studied. ... Centruroides venom brings about repetitive firing ... Spontaneous firing was also observed. Eventually the nodal membrane becomes inexcitable following venom treatment. (note: The sentence keeps the study's subject (single frog myelinated nerve fibres) and its date; '1975' is the reference's publication year, which the abstract text does not restate. Nothing here is carried over to what the venom does in people.) |

## Curry et al. (1983). Envenomation by the Scorpion Centruroides Sculpturatus. Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology.

https://doi.org/10.3109/15563658308990433

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| venom that drives nerve axons into prolonged and excessive firing | Envenomation by the scorpion C. sculpturatus can be life threatening. The action of the venom is to produce prolonged and excessive firing of neuronal axons |
| A review of 670 patients stung in central Arizona in 1982 described the action of this species' venom as prolonged and excessive firing of neuronal axons | Envenomation by the scorpion C. sculpturatus can be life threatening. The action of the venom is to produce prolonged and excessive firing of neuronal axons which results in a wide variety of signs and symptoms. Records of 670 patients suffering from scorpion stings in central Arizona in 1982 were reviewed to characterize the clinical course of these patients. (note: The 1983 paper reviews 1982 records, so the sentence dates it. 'the long fibres that carry a nerve cell's signal' explains 'axons'.) |
| a scorpion whose venom drives nerve axons into prolonged and excessive firing | The action of the venom is to produce prolonged and excessive firing of neuronal axons (note: vibe.reason) |

## Boyer et al. (2009). Antivenom for Critically Ill Children with Neurotoxicity from Scorpion Stings. New England Journal of Medicine.

https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa0808455

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| In a randomized trial of fifteen children admitted to intensive care, all eight who received that antivenom had their symptoms resolve within four hours, against one of the seven who received a placebo | In a randomized, double-blind study, the efficacy of scorpion-specific F(ab')(2) antivenom, as compared with placebo, was assessed in 15 children 6 months to 18 years of age who were admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit with clinically significant signs of scorpion envenomation. ... resolution of symptoms in all eight antivenom recipients versus one of seven placebo recipients within 4 hours after treatment |
| Yes, a scorpion-specific antivenom. In a randomized trial of fifteen children admitted to intensive care, all eight who received the antivenom had their symptoms resolve within four hours, against one of the seven who received a placebo. | In a randomized, double-blind study, the efficacy of scorpion-specific F(ab')(2) antivenom, as compared with placebo, was assessed in 15 children 6 months to 18 years of age who were admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit with clinically significant signs of scorpion envenomation. ... resolution of symptoms in all eight antivenom recipients versus one of seven placebo recipients within 4 hours after treatment |

## Webber & Bryson (2015). Geographic variation in the thermal biology of a widespread Sonoran Desert arachnid, Centruroides sculpturatus (Arachnida: Scorpiones). Journal of Arid Environments.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.04.014

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Widely distributed across the Sonoran Desert, from low, dry sites in western Arizona to cooler mountains in the east | We tested whether geographic variation in preferred body temperatures existed for the Arizona bark scorpion Centruroides sculpturatus, an arachnid widely distributed across the Sonoran Desert. We predicted that geographic variation in thermal preference would exist between populations from a xeric, low-elevation site in western Arizona (Quartzsite) and a cooler, high-elevation site in eastern Arizona (Pinaleño Mountains). (note: stats.habitat; 'xeric, low-elevation' worded as 'low, dry'; the two sites are the study's, so 'from ... to' spans the sampled range) |
| tags: desert | the Arizona bark scorpion Centruroides sculpturatus, an arachnid widely distributed across the Sonoran Desert |

## Scorpion Toxicity. StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf, 2023.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430928/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| The venom of some scorpion species leaves a nerve cell's sodium gates incompletely closed | The venom of some species can cause prolonged depolarization by causing incomplete inactivation of sodium channels, resulting in a slow influx of sodium. (note: StatPearls is genus-wide and uses the older name C. exilicauda, and this line says 'some species', so the blockquote keeps that scope and hedge.) |
| A slow influx of sodium follows, and the axon fires without regulation | resulting in a slow influx of sodium. This influx then leads to membrane hyperexcitability and unregulated axon firing |
| A 2023 clinical review | Last Update: August 8, 2023 (note: The page's own date, which is what makes it the current source for the lines that follow.) |
| reports that adults are stung more often than children, that children more often develop severe illness | Adults do become envenomed more often than children; however, children do exhibit more severe illness as a consequence more often than adults. (note: The current 2023 review is cited for this rather than Curry 1983's 1982 records, which report the same pattern.) |
| a scorpion-specific antivenom is available in the United States | Antivenom is reserved for patients showing skeletal muscle or cranial nerve dysfunction who are stung by either Centruroides or Parabuthus. ... It is available in the United States, which is intravenous scorpion-specific F(ab')2 equine antivenom. (note: Stated as what the review reports exists, with no advice on when or how it is used. The same page records that the antivenom marketed in 1965 was withdrawn in 2001, which is why the 1983 paper's antivenom is not described as current.) |
| The same review records no reported deaths from scorpion stings in Arizona since 1968. | There have been no reported deaths from scorpion envenomation in Arizona since 1968. (note: 'stings' for the source's 'envenomation'. 'no reported deaths' keeps the source's qualifier, and the review is dated in the sentence before it (Last Update: August 8, 2023). StatPearls is Arizona-wide and uses the older name C. exilicauda, so the sentence is not worded as a claim about this species alone.) |

## Scorpion. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/scorpion

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Scorpions may take an insect, a spider, or even a small mouse or lizard, grabbed with the pincers and crushed | Scorpions use different ways to get a meal, which may be an insect, spider, or even a small mouse or lizard. ... Once the prey is within reach, it is grabbed with the pincers and crushed. (note: San Diego Zoo's page is order-wide (all scorpions), so the line is worded at that scope ('Scorpions may take'), never as this species' diet. No source in the pack states a diet for C. sculpturatus.) |
| those that do not burrow may climb trees or hide under bark or leaf litter | Scorpions that do not burrow may climb trees or hide under bark or leaf litter for shelter. (note: Order-wide page, so the clause is worded at that scope with the source's 'may'.) |