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 ...

All genera of the world: Order Scorpiones (Animalia: Arthropoda: Arachnida)

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All genera of the world: Order Scorpiones (Animalia: Arthropoda: Arachnida)

Abstract

The present contribution provides a consensus classification of the arachnid Order Scorpiones C.L. Koch, 1850, and updates the counts of extant and extinct genera and species through the end of 2025. Including the revisions implemented herein, there are 459 genus-group names available in Scorpiones by the end of 2025. Of these, 318 refer to currently accepted extant genera (220), subfossil genera (1) and extinct genera (97). Fifty-four genus-group names are newly synonymized, raising to 145 the number in synonymy, whereas sixteen genus-group names are revalidated and/or newly elevated to the rank of genus. Including the revisions implemented herein, Scorpiones includes 3,089 currently accepted species-group names (2,918 extant species, 1 subfossil species, and 170 extinct species) and 22 nomina dubia. Forty-seven species-group names are newly synonymized, whereas 43 species-group names are revalidated and/or newly elevated to the rank of species. 197 (62%) of the currently accepted genus-group names were described since 1950. Despite this descriptive activity, the suprageneric phylogeny and classification of Recent scorpions remains in a state of flux and largely decoupled from the phylogeny and classification of fossil forms.

Prendini, L. (2026). All genera of the world: Order Scorpiones (Animalia: Arthropoda). Megataxa, 19(2), 270–378. https://doi.org/10.11646/megataxa.19.2.2