Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 68, núm. 1, 2016, p. 57-79 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2016v68n1a8

Pseudoscorpions (Arachnida, Chelonethi) in Mexican amber, with a list of extant species associated with mangrove and Hymenaeatrees in Chiapas

Mark L.I. Judson^1,*

¹ Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), UMR 7205 CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 53, 75005 Paris, France.

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Abstract

Eight pseudoscorpions in amber from Chiapas State, Mexico, are described. These include the first fossil records of the tribe Tyrannochthoniini (Chthoniidae). Paraliochthonius miomaya n. sp. is described from an adult male and a protonymph in separate pieces of amber from Simojovel. The protonymph is the first to be recorded for a species of Paraliochthonius Beier, 1956 and shows that this stage is free-living and non-regressive in this genus. The presence of a Paraliochthonius species in Simojovel amber adds support to the hypothesis that at least part of this amber is derived from a mangrove environment, since the extant epigean species of this genus are restricted to littoral habitats. An unnamed species of Tyrannochthonius Chamberlin, 1929 is described from an adult female in amber from Rio Salado, near Totolapa, Chiapas. Nymphal pseudoscorpions in amber from Simojovel are tentatively assigned to the extant genera Lustrochernes Beier, 1932 (Chernetidae) and Paratemnoides Harvey, 1991 (Atemnidae), and an unidentified genus of Cheliferini (Cheliferidae). The genus Mayachernes Riquelme, Piedra-Jiménez and Córdova-Tabares, 2014, which was erected for the first species of pseudoscorpion to be named from Mexican amber, is synonymized with Byrsochernes Beier, 1959, resulting in the new combination Byrsochernes maatiatus(Riquelme, Piedra-Jiménez and Córdova-Tabares, 2014).

A list is given of extant pseudoscorpions collected close to mangroves at La Cadena and from Hymenaea courbaril trees at Coquitos (Biosphere Reserve La Encrucijada), both in Chiapas State. These include the first Mexican records of the species Americhernes oblongus (Say, 1821) and the genus Dolichowithius Chamberlin, 1931. Paratemnoides elongatus (Banks, 1895) and Trinidatemnus separatus van den Tooren, 2008 are synonymized with P. nidificator (Balzan, 1888) (new subjective synonymies). Trinidatemnus van den Tooren, 2008 therefore becomes a junior synonym of Paratemnoides Harvey, 1991 (new subjective synonymy). The first record of P. nidificator from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe is given.

Keywords: pseudoscorpions, amber, mangroves, Mexico, Chiapas, Miocene.

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