A pseudoscorpion clinging to a cave salamander: phoresy or failed predation?

Posted by
  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 ...

Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species

Posted by

 


Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species

Abstract

Anyphaena is a diverse spider genus with 66 species distributed in North America. This is the type genus of the family Anyphaenidae and comprises five species groups (accentuata, celer, pacifica, pectorosa and porta), with the celer group having the highest species richness. Here, we conducted an extensive revision of Anyphaena specimens from several North American spider collections, as part of a comprehensive study of the accentuata and celer species groups in the region. As main results, we emended the descriptions with detailed information for male and female genitalia for two the previously proposed species of accentuata group and thirty-two previously proposed species of celer group from North America and describe eight new species from Mexico: A. brescoviti sp. nov., A. estriada sp. nov., A. mateoi sp. nov., A. martinezae sp. nov., A. monserratae sp. nov., A. platnicki sp. nov., A. reynae sp. nov. and A. sundevalli sp. nov. Furthermore, we provide new geographical records for A. subgibba O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896, A. dixiana (Chamberlin & Woodbury, 1929) and A. arbida Platnick, 1974 from Mexico, and A. subgibba from Panama. We provide photographs of habitus and genitalia for the previous described species. We also provide updated distribution maps and an identification key for all the North American species of the celer group.

García-García, M. Ángel, Ibarra-Núñez, G., Sánchez-García, J.A. & Jiménez, M.L. (2026) Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species. Zootaxa, 5788 (1), 1–106. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5788.1.1