Marine Pseudoscorpions

PPsseeuuddoossccoorrppiioonnss can be found on the sea shore.Several species occur including the ubiquitousChthonius ischnocheles associated with maritime

plants and Neobisium carcinoides from beneathstones and amongst other debris. Other speciesobligate marine species. Dactylochelifer latreilleihides away amongst leaf bases of marram grassand other maritime plants and beneath drif twood and other f lotsam and jetsam. It well adapt-ed to the potentially very dry conditions of dunesand sandy shores having a thick tough integu-ment. If you turn over a piece of drift wood andspot some they move surprisingly quickly to getaway from the light.

Chthonius kewi Gabbutt, originally found inEssex, occurs throughout salt-marsh, dune andshingle habitats hiding amongst vegetable debrismuch like its common cousin, C. ischnocheles(Herman). It s close relat ive C. tetrachelatus(Preyssler) (which lacks the additional micro-setaeon the posterior row of the cephalothorax) isfound in similar places.

Neobisium carpenteri (Kew), originally found atGlenglariff, Co. Cork, Ireland high on the shoreunder the bark of f laking Arbutus trees is alsoknown from the Essex coast (and a quarr y in

Wales!). Its habitat in Essex is quite different tothat of Ireland. In Essex it occurs in salt marshdebris and vegetable mould on shingle beachesand sand dunes close to salt marshes. Clearlysomet hing is aw r y. The species or ig inal lydescribed in Ireland can not be the same as thatliving in Essex, let alone the quarry in Wales.Until someone looks closely at this problem wewill not be able to resolve. DNA work would bethe way to sort this problem out.

Of all the maritime species, Neobisium mariti-mum Leach is more marine than the rest. Thisspecies can, like several f lies, collembola andother insects, withstand being submerged by thesea. It is found at the top of the upper down tothe lower lit toral (Ascophyllum zone)where itsecretes itself in rock crevices when sprayed orsubmerged in sea water. There are a few scatteredrecords from France, SW Cornwall, SW Wales,the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight, Angelsey andthe coast of Ireland. As a rare species it has beenidentified and is listed by MARLIN (Marine LifeInformation Net work for Britain and Ireland,http:/www).

Suction sampling of sea-wall and salt-marshplants and dune grasses will yield all of thespecies mentioned above without too much tedi-um or habitat destruction. Nature reserve war-dens, English Nature, the RSPB and other organi-sations do not look kindly on people who system-atically rip up dune plants to look for pseudoscor-pions lurking in the leaf-bases! Such activit y leadsto dune ‘blow-outs’ and erosion. Be warned!

Editor: Gerald LeggContributions to me c/o The Booth Museum of Natural History,194 Dyke Road, Brighton, BN1 5AA; e-mail: office boothmus@pavilion.co.uk,

home gerald@natura.uklinux.netVisit Pseudoscorpions at:

chelifer.com/pseudos

No.6Newsletter of the Pseudoscorpion Recorders Group

November 2003G a l ea

An Archaeological Pseudoscorpion

DDuurriinngg the year I received an unusualidentification request – a pseudoscorpionfound in an archaeological deposit at

Conisborough, S. Yorks. Beetles are the common

On the Move

GGaalleeaa is on t he move! It wil l now bemerging wit h t he Newslet ter of theBritish Arachnological Society as f rom

this edition, No. 66 in Newsletter 9988.. This hasbeen done in order to streamline the productionand fit it in with the st yle of the BAS.

Copies will be still be sent out to non-BASmembers and it will be available on the web athttp://www.Chelifer.com/pseudos.

component of suchdeposits and they canof ten be identif iedt o s p e c i e s , o r a tle ast genus. Fromsuch r e su l t s i t i spossible to build apicture of the faunaoccupying the site inthe distant past.

Apparent ly pseu-doscorpion palps,tentatively identifiedas belonging toChernes cimicoides,are found. The palpsare probably t hemost robust andtough part of a pseu-doscorpion and sot he most likely tosurvive a long peri-od of time, much inthe same way as bee-t le ely t ra are pre-served.

This was the first time, as far as I can ascertain,that an almostwhole pseu-d o s c o r p i o nhad beenfound. Ofcourse I amp r o b a b l yw rong soshould anyoneknow of similarfinds please do

let me know. As the National Recorder, one ques-tion that comes to mind is to how to add therecord to the database when it comes to enteringit s ‘date of col lec-t ion’. This usual lyrefers to a live specimenwhich is easy to date,even though it mayonly be to year (forold historical recordsg le ane d f r om t helit erature for exam-ple). Now I have aspecimen that is over

Setae around genital area

a thousand years old.The specimen was found in deposits in a ditch

around a medieval deer park (Paul Buckland,Dept. ofArchaeology &P r e h i s t o r y ,Universit y ofSheff ield). It issurprisingly com-plete consisting oft he bulk of t heprosoma andopisthosoma, albeitsquashed f lat.Even set ae andt he posit ions oftrichobothria canbe seen.

Identification could no be based on the usualstring of characters but rather through elimination ofsuspects based upon the feat ures preservedin the specimen.

Divided sternites and tergites suggested it wasprobably a chernetid. It also lacked eyes. Setaewere still present, particularly around the genitalarea and t he form and disposit ion of t hesesuggested it was a female.

Most of the other body setae had been lost,their presence only marked by the circular scars of

their bases. Those setae away from the genitalarea were multi-tipped ‘goose-footed’, this elimi-Anterior end showing chelicerae

‘Goose-foot’ body seta

Posterior opisthosoma showingsetal and trichobothrial base scars

Dorsal view of the entire specimen from Conisborough

Look out forSphagnumand marinespecies !

suction a particular sampling session in grassland.However other habitats had yielded material.

Suction sampling can be very efficient at pickingup all kinds of invertebrates, including pseudoscorpions,so the fact that none were found during this particularsampling session is perhaps of signif icanceindicating an absence of these predators. Ofcourse to confirm this other sampling techniqueswould have to be tried.

Sampling various grasslands in Sussex I havefound Chthonius orthodactylus (Leach) and C.ischnocheles (Hermann). By hand sorting thebases of rough grasses further specimens werefound.

Has anyone else experienced the absence ofpseudoscorpions in a particular habitat which thatcan not attribute to poor sampling or the meth-ods used?

nated the three species of Lamprochernes sinceLamprochernes has fine acute body setae.

The main feature to help narrow the identit ydown fur ther was the number of setae in theposterior rows of the sternites and tergites. Mostof the chernetids have over 14 setae (Chernes cim-icoides, a t ypical woodland species has 14 – 16on tergite I and tergite VI 18 – 19). This speci-men has 8 –10, a similar number to that found inPselaphochernes scorpioides. This feature togetherwit h t he presence of t r ichobot hr ia on t hethe posterior of the opisthosoma would suggestthat the pseudoscorpion was P. scorpioides.

Pselaphochernes scorpioides is not a t ypicalwoodland species, but since it was found at thebottom of a ditch it could well have been associat-ed with medieval rubbish dumped in the ditch.This species is associated with compost heaps,manure heaps and other high nitrogen vegetablewaste habitats where it is associated with beetlesand f lies with similar habitat requirements.Additionally P. scorpioides (Hermann) is oftenphoretic on compost/manure f lies and recordsare regularly received f rom recorders f indingthem indoors on such f lies – always females.

My thanks to Paul Buckland of the Universit yof Sheffield for the specimen and details of thesite.

Sphagnum Bogs Again

II’’vvee ssttiillll not been told where the Microbisiumbrevifemoratum Ellingsen was collected despite

efforts to do so. As mentioned in previous issuesof GGaalleeaa, this species occurs in Sphagnum bogsand other marshy areas. If anyone has the chanceto vacuum sample such an area in a search for spi-ders or insects do remember to keep your eyeopen for any pseudoscorpions. Should you findany please send them to me, of course with fulldetails of where you found it!

Records Received

TThheerree wwaass a small drop in the number ofrecords received over the past year with

about 50 being coming in. Thanks to all thosewho have sent in their records and specimens –even the common ones!

Gerald

‘No Finds’ is Still Significant

OOnnee ooff oouurr stalwart pseudoscorpion hunters,John Hunnisett, remarked in a letter he

sent accompanying some specimens that he hadfailed to pick up any pseudoscorpions during a