Associated pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones) with waste heaps of Atta colombica (Guérin-Méneville, 1844) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Panama

Abstract

Waste heaps of Atta are host to an extraordinary diversity of myrmecophiles insects and other arthropods. In this study, the presence of four species of pseudoscorpions is recorded in two Atta colombica waste heaps in the years 2016 and 2017. Two of these species, Cordylochernes scorpioides and Lustrochernes carolinensis are new records in waste heaps and except for the deutonymphs of L. carolinensis, the others all stages of post-embryonic development were present in the studied heaps, which could indicate that these two species carry out their entire life cycle in these waste mounds and live there permanently.

Keywords

• ant nests
• atemnidae
• cheiridiidae
• chernetidae
• symbiosis