A REVIEW OF SUFFOLK PSEUDOSCORPIONS H. MENDEL
Pseudoscorpions belong to the Arachnida, a group of animals which also includes the spiders, mites and true scorpions. They bear a superficial resemblance to the true scorpions, but do not have a sting, are very much smaller (the British species are all less then 4mm) and differ in a number of other, less obvious, though equally important respects. Because of their small size and retiring habits, pseudoscorpions are seldom seen, though it cannot be said that they are rare. They may be found almost anywhere and profitable hunting grounds are, leaf litter, tideline debris, rotten wood, under bark and about old buildings. Some species will cling to the legs of flies, to be carried to new habitats, and by doing so bring themselves to our attention. They feed on a wide variety of very small animals, and before reaching maturity pass through three free-living nymphal stages—the protonymph, deutonymph, and tritonymph. Claude Morley (1911) recorded three species from Suffolk, and in a later review (Morley, 1940) added a further five. Of these, two—Chthonius orthodactylus (Leach) and Chelifer cancroides L.—must now be removed from the Suffolk List (see Species List). To date, fifteen of the twenty-five species on the British List have been found in Suffolk, though two of these—Roncus Iubricus L. Koch and Dendrochernes cyrneus L. Koch—have been reported only once, and the records have yet to be verified. The purpose of this review is to bring together all Suffolk records of pseudoscorpions known to the author, and introduce three species as new to the County. The sources of records are as follows: i. Publications (see References). ii. Collections: a) Claude Morley Collection, his associated diaries and annotated copy of Pickard-Cambridge's monograph 'On the British Species of FalseScorpions' (Pickard-Cambridge, 1892); all held by the Ipswich Museums. b) C. S. Barham Collection. c) The Author's Collection. All of Mr. Barham's and the author's specimens have been determined by either Mr. P. E. Jones, the National Recorder (Pseudoscorpiones), the Biological Records Centre, Monks Wood Experimental Station, or Dr. G. Legg, Keeper of Biology, Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton. Mr. Jones has also examined the Morley Collection and redetermined specimens where necessary. iii. Ipswich Museums enquiries. iv. Mr. P. E. Jones very kindly supplied me with a list of all other Suffolk records known to him, and gathered during the preparation of national distribution maps. Thanks to this generosity, the author is able to present Trans. Suffolk
Nat. Soc. 18 pari 3.