Relationship between scorpion sting events and environmental conditions in mainland France

 

Jules-Antoine Vaucel and co-workers have published a thorough study of scorpion stings in mainland France. This is interesting in itself and I find it especially interesting that they report of one event of scorpion sting involving the enigmatic B. xambeui Simon, 1879 (Belisaiidae). Unfortunately, they present no details on this incident, but I guess it caused no serious morbidity. Other species represented in the study were Buthus occitanus (Amoreux, 1789) (Buthidae) and Euscorpius concinnus (Koch, 1837), Euscorpius italicus (Herbst, 1800), Euscorpius tergestinus (Koch, 1837), and Tetratrichobothrius flavicaudis (De Geer, 1778) (all in the family Euscorpiidae).

As the title indicate, the authors have tried to find a relationship relationship between scorpion sting events and environmental conditions like level of sunshine, temperature etc. The authors conclude that climatic variations could well predict encounters between humans and scorpions in France. 

Abstract:
In the world, the impact of environmental conditions on the number of scorpion events was evaluated in North Africa,Middle East, and the Amazonian region but not in Europe. In mainland France, scorpion species described are Buthus occitanus (Amoreux, 1789), Belisarius xambeui (Simon, 1879) and 4 Euscorpiidae: Euscorpius concinnus (Koch, 1837), Euscorpius italicus (Herbst, 1800), Euscorpius tergestinus (Koch, 1837), and Tetratrichobothrius flavicaudis (De Geer, 1778). We aimed to describe the impact of environmental conduction on the number of scorpion events. For this, a retrospective multi-center study was conducted with data from the French poison control centers files about scorpion events between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2020. During the study period, 975 incoming calls for scorpion events were recorded and 574 were related to scorpions native to mainland France and Corsica: B. occitanus (n = 86), Euscorpiidae species (n = 222), B. xambeui (n = 1), and undetermined species (n = 265). Cases were mostly reported along the Mediterranean coast, along rivers, and in cities with a trading port. The number of scorpion events was linked to the rivers' water level, rivers' flow, temperature, sunshine, and pluviometry (P < 0.05 for all variables). B. occitanus need warmest and driest environment than Euscorpiidae spp. A link between the severity of the envenoming and climatic condition or seasonality was not demonstrated.

Reference:
Vaucel JA, Larreche S, Paradis C, Labadie M, Courtois A, Grenet G, et al. Relationship Between Scorpion Stings Events and Environmental Conditions in Mainland France. J Med Entomol. 2021. [Subscription required for full text]