Species group · Arachnids
WAnimals has 2 species of pseudoscorpion, spread across 2 families (Cheliferidae, Chernetidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 2.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 48 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It is known as the book scorpion because it turns up between the pages of old volumes, where it hunts the mites that feed on the paper and the glue.
From House False-scorpion
It travels long distances by gripping the legs of flies and other insects with its pincers, a form of hitchhiking called phoresy.
From House False-scorpion
It produces silk, but not from the abdomen as spiders do — from glands in the pincers themselves — and weaves with it a retreat in which to moult and overwinter.
From House False-scorpion
Pseudoscorpions perform a courtship dance in which the male deposits a packet of sperm on the ground and guides the female over it, holding her by the pincers.
Despite looking like a miniature scorpion, it has no tail and no sting at all: the venom, where it exists, is in the pincers.
Like all pseudoscorpions, it has a scorpion's pincers but no tail or sting, and is harmless to people.