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 ...

Cloud forest scorpions: a new species of Guyanochactas Lourenço, 1998 (Scorpiones, Chactidae) from Mount Itoupé in French Guiana

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Cloud forest scorpions: a new species of Guyanochactas Lourenço, 1998 (Scorpiones, Chactidae) from Mount Itoupé in French Guiana

Abstract. – 

A new species of scorpion belonging to the genus Guyanochactas Lourenço, 1998 (family Chactidae Pocock, 1893), is described on the basis of one specimen collected in the cloud forest of Mount Itoupé, the second highest peak of French Guiana. Guyanochactas itoupe sp. n. represents the fourth species of the genus reported from French Guiana and the total number of Guyanochactas species is now raised to six. The new species is a possible vicariant of Guyanochactas touroulti Lourenço, 2018, equally described from a massif formation of French Guiana, the Mitaraka.

Ythier E., Chevalier J. & Lourenço W. R., 2025. – Scorpions des forêts de nuages : une nouvelle espèce de Guyanochactas Lourenço, 1998 (Scorpiones, Chactidae) du Mont Itoupé en Guyane Française. Faunitaxys, 13(48): 1 – 9. https://archive.org/details/faunitaxys-f-386