# A New Toxungenous Scorpion with Léo Laborieux Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-species-3517520/a-new-toxungenous-scorpion-with-l-o-laborieux Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-species-3517520/a-new-toxungenous-scorpion-with-l-o-laborieux.md Podcast: [New Species](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-species-3517520) Published: 2025-05-27T10:00:16+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/newspeciespodcast/episodes/A-New-Toxungenous-Scorpion-with-Lo-Laborieux-e33drlf Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/3a86c1f0/podcast/play/103263343/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-4-27%2F4b8390ba-ebad-f4ee-3b01-92821d732d0b.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-species-3517520/episodes/a-new-toxungenous-scorpion-with-l-o-laborieux Duration seconds: 2018 ## Resource “Serendipity is a real grabbing force of science,” says Léo Laborieux as he shares his experience describing his new species of scorpion. While at a remote research station in the Colombian rainforest, Léo found a handful of scorpions that exhibited a unique venom ‘flicking’ behavior. Armed only with his phone and a few basic supplies, Léo documented the behavior, diagnosed the scorpions as being a new species, and came to fascinating conclusions about venom biomechanics. In this episode he brings us deep into the world of scorpion venoms and shares his love of these creatures and their startling diversity. Léo Laborieux’ paper “Biomechanics of venom delivery in South America’s first toxungen-spraying scorpion” is in the December 2024 edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae161 A transcript of this episode can be found here: Léo Laborieux - Transcript New Species: Tityus achilles Episode image credit: Léo Laborieux Léo’s first new species from a mountain near his hometown: https://doi.org/10.57800/faunitaxys-10(47) Follow Léo on Instagram @lhommedesboas Or connect on Bluesky @6legsandup.blsky.socialRead his papers on Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leo_Laborieux?ev=hdr_xprf Scrappy Science: https://www.scrappyscience.org Global Alliance of Community Science Workshops: https://www.communityscienceworkshops.org Other scorpion episodes from this podcast: Prakrit Jain Javier Blasco-Aróstegui Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast ). Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom ( https://fanlink.to/HaTom ) If y… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-species-3517520/episodes/a-new-toxungenous-scorpion-with-l-o-laborieux/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-species-3517520/a-new-toxungenous-scorpion-with-l-o-laborieux.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.