What Does “A Brood of Scorpions” Mean?

“Brood” refers specifically to a mother scorpion and her newly born young, and unlike many collective nouns on this site, it describes a genuinely well-documented and remarkable piece of real animal behavior. Scorpions give live birth rather than laying eggs, and immediately after birth the pale, soft-bodied young climb onto their mother’s back, where they ride for one to several weeks until their first molt hardens their exoskeleton enough to survive independently.

During this period the mother actively protects her brood, a rare example of extended parental care among arachnids, most of which show little to no investment in their offspring after laying eggs. Once the brood molts for the first time, the young scorpions disperse from her back and begin hunting on their own, ending one of the more surprisingly tender chapters in the arachnid world.

Example: “A brood of pale, newborn scorpions clung tightly to their mother’s back as she moved beneath the rock.”

Related: Collective Nouns for Arachnids · A Nest of Scorpions