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 ...

Two new species and a new combination in Aculithus Liu & Li, 2022 (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from South China

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Two new species and a new combination in Aculithus Liu & Li, 2022 (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from South China

Abstract

Background

Jiangxi Province has gradually become a hotspot for research on the family Phrurolithidae Banks, 1892, with 64 new species discovered in the past five years. Notably, over half of the currently known Aculithus species (5 species) were recorded in this region. However, studies have primarily focused on southern Jiangxi, while northern Jiangxi and remote mountainous areas remain under-surveyed. Many unknown Phrurolithidae species are still likely to be discovered within the Province.

New information

Two new species, Aculithus languan Jiang & Liu, sp. nov. and A. ruijin Jiang & Liu, sp. nov., are described from Jiangxi Province, China. Morphological illustrations, SEM pictures, photos of live specimens and a distribution map are given. Additionally, a new combination, A. taoyuan (Fu, Chen & Zhang, 2016) comb. nov., is proposed. The total number of the known species of Aculithus from China is raised to 12, including the three species treated in the present paper.

Jiang Z, Wang Z, Lyu X, Yang J, Liu K (2025) Two new species and a new combination in Aculithus Liu & Li, 2022 (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from South China. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e153747. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e153747