In May 2016, seventeen months after an oil spill at the 'Avrona Nature Reserve (you can learn more about the 'Avrona oil spill here), a long-term monitoring of arachnids was launched as part of a larger monitoring project of the Israel Nature Protection Authorities (INPA) and Israel’s National Nature Assessment Program (HaMaarag). Nitzan Segev, whose PhD work is focused on the effect of the oil spill on the behavior of various species in the reserve, was part of a team who uncovered an interesting discovery – the first recorded observations of scorpions hunting antlions larvae. The team found out that at least two species of scorpions are hunting antlions, each using a different foraging tactic. While the scorpion Orthochirus scrobiculosus negebensis (in the picture) actively forages for antlion larvae by walking from one antlion pit-trap to another, the scorpion Buthacus leptochelys uses a sit-and-wait ambush technique inside the antlion's pit-traps.
