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 revision of the open-holed trapdoor spiders of the Teyl damsonoides-group (Mygalomorphae: Anamidae: Teylinae) from south-western Australia

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 A revision of the open-holed trapdoor spiders of the Teyl damsonoides-group (Mygalomorphae: Anamidae: Teylinae) from south-western Australia


Abstract

The open-holed trapdoor spiders of the Teyl damsonoides-group (formerly included in the now synonymized genus Merredinia Main, 1983) are revised, and 20 new species are described from the biodiversity hotspot of south-western Western Australia. The only previously described species, T. damsonoides (Main, 1983), is further re-described and re-illustrated, and molecular data from seven genes for a subset of nine species are analyzed using Bayesian methods. The damsonoides-group of Teyl are unusual for their stunning bi-colored appearance and the bowed morphology of the male metatarsus I, and we here document the known diversity and biology of these little-known spiders.

Michael G. Rix, Jeremy D. Wilson, Mark S. Harvey "A revision of the open-holed trapdoor spiders of the Teyl damsonoides-group (Mygalomorphae: Anamidae: Teylinae) from south-western Australia," The Journal of Arachnology, 51(3), 287-377, (6 December 2023)