Original Article

Diversity of trophic interactions between scorpions and insects

  • Huiwen Yang ,
  • Minghua Xiu ,
  • Jingni Zhu ,
  • Renshuo Wang ,
  • Chengmin Shi
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  • State Key Laboratory of North China Crop Improvement and Regulation, College of Plant Protection, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071001, China
Chengmin Shi

Online published: 2025-10-24

Supported by

This work was supported by the S&T Program of Hebei (the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei, C2024204233), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32170455) and the State Key Laboratory of North China Crop Improvement and Regulation (YJ2020028)

Abstract

Trophic interactions, the fundamental links in food webs, are an important modulator of biodiversity structuring and ecosystem functioning. However, interactions between scorpions and insects remain poorly understood despite their high biomass and diversity in natural ecosystems and more than 410 million years of evolutionary history. Here we summarize three trophic interaction types from 95 scorpion-insect species pairs in which both scorpions and insects were identified at least to the genus level. Predator-prey relationships were the most documented trophic interactions between scorpions and insects, involving 45 scorpion species from 9 families and 79 insect species from 11 orders. Prey-predator interactions were recorded between 11 species pairs of insects from four orders and scorpions from five families. Parasitiodism was documented between four dipterans (3 families) and five scorpions (3 families). The mega-diversity of insects and the high biomass of scorpion species in natural ecosystems imply that their complex trophic interactions await to be characterized.

Cite this article

Huiwen Yang , Minghua Xiu , Jingni Zhu , Renshuo Wang , Chengmin Shi . Diversity of trophic interactions between scorpions and insects[J]. Zoological Systematics, 2025 , 50(4) : 281 -292 . DOI: 10.11865/zs.2025401

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