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 ...

Illustrated Catalog of African brush-footed trapdoor spiders: type specimens from the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Barychelidae)

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Illustrated Catalog of African brush-footed trapdoor spiders: type specimens from the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Barychelidae)

The brush-footed trapdoor spiders (Barychelidae Simon, 1889) represent a family of mygalomorphs that includes 285 species spread in 39 genera. Barychelids are mainly tropical spiders, distributed from South America to Oceania. The African barychelid fauna is the second most diverse in number of spiders described within the family, with 41 species known from nine different genera. Following several published taxonomic works of Pierre L. G. Benoit in the mid-1960s, few taxonomic revisions of Barychelidae have been proposed since from the African continent. To avoid deterioration and loss of information from the type specimens, we have made efforts to digitise these specimens, which serve as the definitive references and physical representations of the species. Among 174 mygalomorph types deposited at the Royal Museum of Central Africa (RMCA) in Belgium, Barychelidae is represented by 16 species from five different genera. The present paper aims to provide illustrations of important morphological characters. Additionally, we herein considered the species Cyphonisia straba Benoit, 1966, Pisenor selindanus (Benoit, 1966), and Sipalolasma humicola (Benoit, 1965) as species inquirendae, and S. warnantae Benoit, 1966 as senior synonym of S. kissi Benoit, 1966. This work aspires to improve the understanding and accessibility of name-bearing types through the cataloguing and digitisation of type specimens of Barychelidae deposited at the RMCA.

GONZALEZ-FILHO H. M. O., COLPANI-SARTORI M. T., HENRARD A., GUADANUCCI J. P. L. & BRESCOVIT A. D. 2024. — Illustrated Catalog of African brush-footed trapdoor spiders: type specimens from the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Barychelidae). Zoosystema 46 (26): 671-695. https://doi.org/10.5252/zoosystema2024v46a26. http://zoosystema.com/46/26