A pseudoscorpion clinging to a cave salamander: phoresy or failed predation?

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  A pseudoscorpion clinging to a cave salamander: phoresy or failed predation? Abstract Pseudoscorpions are well known for phoretic associations with arthropods, but interactions with amphibians are rarely documented. Here we report a pseudoscorpion attached to the left palpebral region of an adult male Italian cave salamander, Speleomantes italicus , observed during a visual survey in a karst cave in Tuscany, Italy. The pseudoscorpion, assigned on the basis of visible morphology and locality to Chthonius cf. elongatus , was grasping a minute cutaneous fold on the lower margin of the left upper eyelid with one chela while the salamander moved slowly over the rock surface. No handling was performed and the initial contact between the two animals was not observed. The event therefore cannot be interpreted unambiguously, but may represent opportunistic phoresy or defensive attachment following a failed predation attempt. To our knowledge, this is the first published observation of a ...

A new species of Thallumetus Simon, 1893, the first dictynid from Ascension Island (Araneae: Dictynidae)

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A new species of Thallumetus Simon, 1893, the first dictynid from Ascension Island (Araneae: Dictynidae)

Abstract 
A new dictynid species of the genus Thallumetus Simon, 1893 with a highly modified male palpal patella and tibia, combined with a unique shape to the epigyne, is described from Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean: Thallumetus ascensionensis sp. nov. The new species represents the first report of the family Dictynidae from Ascension and also the first Old World record of Thallumetus. The northernmost and southernmost limits of the family are briefly discussed. 


SHERWOOD, D., MARUSIK, Yu.M., PENAHERRERA-R., P., CALDERON-C., J. & SHARP, A. (2024) A new species of Thallumetus Simon, 1893, the first dictynid from Ascension Island (Araneae: Dictynidae) Arachnology 19(8): 1051–1054