Scorpions!

          Being from the Pacific Northwest, we have not had a lot of experience with scorpions.  But from time to time, they appear in the house here in France.  Naturally, Averil always makes me catch the scorpion (very gently so as not to harm it) so that we can put it in an empty yogurt container or wine glass and study it up close.  Here's one God's creatures that we caught today:

This Scorpion Was On Our Bedroom Wall

Scorpions are probably old hat for lots of people, but not us.  Knowing next to nothing about scorpions, I went to an authoritative treatise (Wikipedia) where I learned these facts among others (cut and paste feature active):

• There are about 1700 described species of scorpion, but only about 25 are dangerous.
• Scorpions live a very long time:  between 4 and 25 years!
• Scorpions can only ingest food in a liquid form; they have external digestion. The digestive juices from the gut are egested onto the food and the digested food sucked in liquid form (like a smoothie).
• Scorpions can consume huge amounts of food at one sitting. They have a very efficient food storage organ and a very low metabolic rate combined with a relatively inactive lifestyle. This enables scorpions to survive long periods when deprived of food; some are able to survive 6 to 12 months of starvation
• Sexual reproduction is accomplished by the transfer of a spermatophore from the male to the female; scorpions possess a complex courtship and mating ritual to effect this transfer. Mating starts with the male and female locating and identifying each other using a mixture of pheromones and vibrational communication. Once they have satisfied the other that they are of opposite sex and of the correct species, mating can commence.
• Fried scorpion is a traditional dish in Shangdong, China. 

                                                           Now that's where I draw the line!