Bark Scorpion Ecology
Matthew P. Rowe, Professor and Department Chair

My research in behavioral ecology uses integrative approaches to study coevolution between predators and their prey. Currently, I am collaborating with my wife, Dr. Ashlee Rowe, in a project studying the interactions between highly neurotoxic bark scorpions and a carnivorous rodent, the grasshopper mouse. Grasshopper mice are ferocious predators of arthropods, including scorpions; indeed, an historical nickname for the mouse used to be the scorpion mouse. Our research has shown that the mice can attack and consume bark scorpions with impunity because of subtle modifications in the peripheral nerves of the mice that impart resistance to the bark scorpion’s neurotoxins. How selection may have operated on the scorpions to counter this resistance is unknown, and our ability to formulate educated hypotheses is hampered by the lack of even basic ecological information on this genus of scorpions. Thus, REU projects would use mark-recapture techniques using individually marked bark scorpions to address such basic issues as population size, habitat preferences, foraging patterns, and risk sensitivity of the bark scorpions at the CBFS. I have mentored numerous graduate and undergraduate students over the years; many of these students have received university, regional, and even national recognition for their projects.

For more information on this REU opportunity, please e-mail Dr. Rowe at mpr002@shsu.edu.