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 Hadrurochactas Pocock, 1893 (Scorpiones: Chactidae) from the Mitaraka Massif in French Guiana

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A new species of Hadrurochactas Pocock, 1893 (Scorpiones: Chactidae) from the Mitaraka Massif in French Guiana

Abstract 


A new species belonging to the genus Hadrurochactas Pocock, 1893 (family Chactidae Pocock,
1893) is described on the basis of one male specimen collected in southern French Guiana, in the Mitaraka Massif, belonging to the Tumuk Humak Mountains (Serra do Tumucumaque), close to the border between French Guiana and Brazil. Hadrurochactas tumucumaque sp. n. represents the third species of Hadrurochactas reported from French Guiana and the total number of Hadrurochactas species is now raised to nine. The disrupted pattern of distribution of the genus is also discussed.

Eric Ythier, Wilson R. Lourenço. A new species of Hadrurochactas Pocock, 1893 (Scorpiones:
Chactidae) from the Mitaraka Massif in French Guiana.. Faunitaxys, 2024, 12 (59), pp.1-9.