Pseudoscorpions, also known as false scorpions or book scorpions, are small, scorpion-like arachnids belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones, also known as Pseudoscorpionida or Chelonethida.
Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans because they prey on clothes-moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies. They are common in many environments, but they are rarely noticed due to their small size. When people see pseudoscorpions, especially indoors, they often mistake them for ticks or small spiders. Pseudoscorpions often carry out phoresis, a form of commensalism in which one organism uses another for the purpose of transport.
More than 3,300 species of pseudoscorpions are recorded in more than 430 genera, with more being discovered on a regular basis.
They range worldwide, even in temperate to cold regions such as Northern Ontario and above the timberline in Wyoming’s Rocky Mountains in the United States and the Jenolan Caves of Australia, but have their most dense and diverse populations in the tropics and subtropics, where they spread even to island territories such as the Canary Islands, where around 25 endemic species have been found. There are also two endemic species on the Maltese Island. Species have been found under tree bark, in leaf and pine litter, in soil, in tree hollows, under stones, in caves such as the Movile Cave, at the seashore in the intertidal zone, and within fractured rocks.
Family Atemnidae
Paratemnoides sp. 086A1913 (Singapore)
Atemnidae 0F1A3888 (Balikpapan, Indonesia)
Atemnidae 0F1A7737 (Sabah, Malaysia)
