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Orgo-Life the new way to the future Advertising by AdpathwayThis week we continue our adventure in Belize where we previously met tasty termites, pretty peacock butterflies, and stinging scorpions. On the bark of an ancient sapodilla tree, we spotted a busy colony of tiny scorpion-like creatures milling about on the surface of the trunk. These tiny arachnids had impressive pinchers known as pedipalps that closely resembled those of their distant cousins, scorpions. Pedipalps of many pseudoscorpions contain venom used to paralyze prey prior to being dismembered and consumed. They secrete proteolytic enzymes designed to predigest their victims before slurping up the liquified tissues of their prey. I’m glad they are not as big as wolves.
On the bark of an ancient rainforest tree a colony of adult pseudoscorpions with dark pinchers and bodies mingled with their lightly colored offspring. Lacking stingers like their cousins, true scorpions, pseudoscorpions rely on venomous pinchers to subdue and dismember prey.
Beyond the much smaller size of pseudoscorpions compared to their true scorpion kin (most pseudoscorpions are less than 8 mm long), the most striking difference is the absence of the elongated tail and painful stinger of the true scorpion. The abdomen of the pseudoscorpion is slightly rounded. Some species are known to travel about by hitching a ride attached to the body of another insect like a fly or a beetle in a behavior known as phoresy. In addition to the rainforests of Belize, pseudoscorpions can be found in homes right here in the DMV where they hunt booklice, carpet beetle larvae, mites, and other minute arthropods found in and around homes. While these curious creatures pose no threats to humans or pets, they are fierce and interesting members of a miniature world in the tropical rainforest.
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