Editing Scorpion (section)

===Mating===

[[File:Dancing scorpions-66970ep.jpg|thumb|right|Male and female scorpion during ''promenade à deux'']]

Most scorpions reproduce sexually, with male and female individuals; species in some genera, such as ''[[Hottentotta]]'' and ''[[Tityus (genus)|Tityus]]'', and the species ''[[Centruroides gracilis]]'', ''[[Liocheles australasiae]]'', and ''[[Ananteris coineaui]]'' have been reported, not necessarily reliably, to reproduce through [[parthenogenesis]], in which unfertilized eggs develop into living [[embryo]]s.<ref name="Lourenço 2008">{{cite journal |last=Lourenço |first=Wilson R. |author-link=Wilson R. Lourenço |title=Parthenogenesis in Scorpions: Some History – New Data |journal=Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins Including Tropical Diseases |volume=14 |issue=1 |year=2008 |issn=1678-9199 |doi=10.1590/S1678-91992008000100003 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Receptive females produce [[pheromone]]s which are picked up by wandering males using their pectines to comb the substrate. Males begin courtship by moving their bodies back and forth, without moving the legs, a behavior known as juddering. This appears to produce ground vibrations that are picked up by the female.{{sfn|Stockmann|2015|p=47}}

The pair then make contact using their pedipalps, and perform a [[dance]] called the ''promenade à deux'' (French for "a walk for two"). In this dance, the male and female move back and forth while facing each other, as the male searches for a suitable place to deposit his spermatophore. The courtship ritual can involve several other behaviors such as a cheliceral kiss, in which the male and female grasp each other's mouth-parts, ''arbre droit'' ("upright tree") where the partners elevate their posteriors and rub their tails together, and sexual stinging, in which the male stings the female in the chelae or mesosoma to subdue her. The dance can last from a few minutes to several hours.{{sfn|Stockmann|2015|pp=47–50}}{{sfn|Stockmann|Ythier|2010|pp=126–128}}

When the male has located a suitably stable substrate, such as hard ground, agglomerated sand, rock, or tree bark, he deposits the spermatophore and guides the female over it. This allows the spermatophore to enter her genital opercula, which triggers release of the sperm, thus fertilizing the female. A [[mating plug]] then forms in the female to prevent her from mating again before the young are born. The male and female then abruptly separate.{{sfn|Stockmann|2015|pp=49–50}}{{sfn|Stockmann|Ythier|2010|p=129}} [[Sexual cannibalism]] after mating has only been reported anecdotally in scorpions.<ref name="Peretti1999">{{cite journal |last=Peretti |first=A. |title=Sexual Cannibalism in Scorpions: Fact or Fiction? |journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=68 |issue=4 |year=1999 |pages=485–496 |issn=0024-4066 |doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.1999.tb01184.x |doi-access=free}}</ref>