FIGURE 11 The schematic representation of the proposed construction of a pitfall trap (according to our results) for collecting scorpions. The traps used in the present study did not contain preservative fluids.
The present study also showed that pitfall traps are most productive in capturing burrowing scorpions. S . maurus , B .tadmorensis , and O . bidentatus are burrowing species, while only H . lepturus is non-burrowing, although the reason for this observation remains to be investigated. This result is consistent with the work of Shehab et al. (2011), in which more than 90% of the scorpions captured belonged to burrowing species. Therefore, pitfall trapping may not be a reliable method for estimating the overall species richness/density of scorpions in an environment inhabited by scorpions with different nesting habits or different life histories.