Scorpions have a complex mating ritual in which the male uses his pedipalps to grasp the female's pedipalps in order to lead her on a "courtship dance". The details of courtship vary from species to species, with some even exhibiting a deliberate and prolonged "sexual sting" by the male. The sperm from the male spermatophore, a structure deposited by the male on the surface over which the female is pulled. The male sweeps his pectines over the ground surface to help locate a suitable place to deposit his spermatophore, usually a rock or stick. The female draws the sperm into her genital pore, which is located near the front on the underside of her abdomen.

Copulation occurs on the wing, within a drone congregation site 15-30 m above ground. An aggregation of drones "lazily" fly within their congregation site awaiting the arrival of a queen, and once she appears a fast-paced chase commences where copulation is attempted. The term "drone comets" visually describe the continual consolidation and disassembly of this following drone swarm. Utilizing a tethered queen, report that the drone clasps the queen in a dorso-ventral position and everts his endophallus directly into the queen's sting chamber. The drone then becomes "paralyzed" and falls backwards. State the eversion of the endophallus occurs from hemostatic pressure caused by abdominal muscles. Ejaculation occurs into the bulb portion of the drone's endophallus prior to full eversion, and semen is discharged through a small opening in the bulb into the queen's vagina during copulation. Figuratively asserts that the drones "explode" their semen into the queen's copulatory orifice, and consequently toward her oviduct. Through subsequent pressure the bow of the bulb and chitinized plates, the "mating sign," detaches from the endophallus of the drone and remains inside the queen. Concludes this may help thwart the flow of sperm from the queen's vagina after copulation, and that it does not function as a "mating plug" used to discourage multiple matings. After the pair separate the endophallus is still fully everted with its associated strong pressure, and with loss of the "mating plug" the endophallus may burst at the tip. At the end of copulation, the drone falls to the ground and dies either in minutes or hours.

Calculated that a single drone on average contains 1/8 to 1/9 the semen required to fill the queen's spermatheca. The average number of times a queen mates has been reported to be from 7-10 and up to 17.25 . Sperm mixing occurs within the queen's spermatheca, and comparable spermatozoa representation of all mates follows at fluctuating intervals , leading to a low average relatedness among the worker caste.