27/01/2026
Enigmachernes: novi rod lažištipavaca kojeg karakterizira forezija na šišmišima / Enigmachernes: a new pseudoscorpion genus characterized by phoresy on insectivorous bats
Australski istraživač Mark S. Harvey, ujedno i suradnik Hrvatskog biospeleološkog društva, opisao je novi rod lažištipavaca Enigmachernes s dvije nove vrste (E. parnabyi i E. dissidens). Vrste su pronađene na krznu šišmiša, čime je potvrđen globalni obrazac neparazitske interakcije između lažištipavaca i drugih organizama. Ovo je dokumentirano diljem svijeta – od Neotropa preko Afrike do Australije. Interakcija zvana forezija (“prijevoz na domaćinu”) ne predstavlja slučajno preživljavanje već evolucijsku strategiju kojom lažištipavci koriste mobilnost drugih organizama, u ovom slučaju šišmiša, za širenje na nova staništa, proširujući svoj ekološki prostor.
Pročitajte više u objavi MAHN Museum of Natural History - France-06.
Australian researcher Mark S. Harvey, also a collaborator of the Croatian Biospeleological Society, described a new genus of pseudoscorpions Enigmachernes with two new species (E. parnabyi and E. dissidens). Species were found on bat fur, thus confirming a global pattern of non-parasitic interaction between pseudoscorpions and other organisms. This is documented worldwide – from the Neotropics through Africa to Australia. The interaction called phoresy ("transport on a host") does not represent accidental survival but an evolutionary strategy whereby pseudoscorpions use the mobility of other organisms, in this case bats, for dispersal to new habitats, expanding their ecological space.
Read more in the post from MAHN Museum of Natural History - France-06.
Living On Wings Without Feeding On Them: Bat Associated Pseudoscorpions And The Quiet Evolution Of Intimacy Without Parasitism
(Pseudoscorpiones, Chernetidae, Cheliferidae, Neobisiidae - Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)
I have long been fascinated by those minor actors of the biological theater who refuse to stay confined within small ideas. Pseudoscorpions belong to this stubborn guild. They appear to the casual observer as compressed scorpions, edited by a parsimonious evolution for discretion rather than the flamboyant drama of their stinging cousins. Yet, when we follow them into bird nests, bat guano, or even the fur of mammals or the plumage of birds, they begin to pose large questions in a very quiet voice.
Our colleague Mark S. Harvey (2025) recently described a new lineage of Australian pseudoscorpions associated with insectivorous bats. He presented this not as a mere taxonomic curiosity, but as a biological manifesto. Of course, this is far from the first time we have encountered pseudoscorpions upon the bodies of bats; such interactions have been documented across the four corners of the globe, with specific lineages found clinging to hosts in the Neotropics, across the African continent, and now in the Australian bush. Yet these specific animals were not simply found near bats; they were structurally integrated around them. This association suggests a subtle intimacy without dependence, a proximity that avoids the parasitic toll. In the Darwinian ledger, this nuance matters deeply. It marks the distinction between a thief and a savvy hitchhiker.
I find this same evolutionary tension running through the work of our colleagues Krajčovičová, K. et al. (2015), who sifted through bat guano in Slovakia and Germany. What they found were not rigid specialists, but brilliant opportunists loyal to conditions rather than specific hosts. Chernes hahnii (C.L. Koch, 1839) appeared with rhythmic regularity in nests and hollows alike. Lamprochernes nodosus (Schrank, 1803) clustered where decay thickened the air. Meanwhile, Allochernes wideri (C.L. Koch, 1843) behaved like a tenant who knows many landlords but signs no lease.
At first glance, this observation looks banal. Microhabitats host microarthropods, and the story ends. But that ending feels too neat for the messy reality of natural selection. I pause instead on the repeated presence of all nymphal stages in these nests. Accidents do not reproduce with such demographic completeness. Persistence leaves a signature.
Then comes the most unsettling observation. Colleagues in New Zealand (Waldock, J.M. et al. 2015) recorded the phoresy of pseudoscorpions on Mystacina tuberculata (Gray, 1843), a bat already famous for walking and blurring the line between mammal and something older. Here, pseudoscorpions did not merely tolerate mammals. They climbed onto them. They used warm fur as a living corridor through space.
Given that these tiny organisms are encountered on highly mobile, warm-blooded, and volant animals, we must reassess dispersal as a primary strategy. Recent work by Mark S. Harvey (2025) suggests that contact with such hosts functions as a radical extension of ecological space. In this view, bats are not mere backdrops. They are vectors. They are corridors of warmth that carry pseudoscorpions beyond the narrow constraints of static microhabitats into landscapes they could never reach alone. Phoretic encounters are not rare curiosities; they are signposts of a broader tactic. To attach to the most active carrier available is to translate another’s flight into one’s own gene flow. This is not desperation. It is an evolved method for species with ephemeral refuges to harvest the mobility of others without draining them. Intimacy without parasitism becomes a mechanism of dispersal writ small across ecological space.
Why should a creature adapted to bark and litter accept a mammal as a substrate? Is this a last resort or an ancestral habit waiting for opportunity? I suspect the latter. Evolution rarely creates such complex behaviors from nothing.
Bird nests, bat guano, and mammal fur share one property that ecology often hides behind statistics. They are temporary but rich. They bloom, then vanish. Evolution does not reward loyalty to permanence when permanence is rare. It rewards readiness.
Consider Dactylochelifer latreillii (Leach, 1817), found repeatedly in open nests and boxes. Or Dinocheirus panzeri (C.L. Koch, 1837), faithful to tree cavities yet willing to tolerate guano. Even Chelifer cancroides (Linnaeus, 1758), the old synanthrope, slips between human buildings and animal refuse with equal ease. These species do not ask who the host is. They ask what the microclimate offers, what prey arrives, and how long the shelter will last.
Phoresy appears then as a logical extension of these requirements. If habitats move, then ride them. If warmth travels, then attach. The bat becomes a flying hollow. The nest becomes a seasonal forest floor lifted into the air.
This perspective dissolves the false debate about whether pseudoscorpions are accidental or regular inhabitants. The answer is a matter of scale. Accident governs the individual, but strategy governs the lineage.
What intrigues me most is how invisible all this remains. These animals leave no marks on their hosts. They leave no scars. They borrow space without announcing themselves. Evolution here whispers instead of shouting.
Perhaps that is the lesson. Some of the most successful ecological stories are written in pencil, not ink. They can be erased locally and rewritten elsewhere. They depend on flexibility, not commitment.
When I imagine the future fossil record, I doubt it will preserve pseudoscorpions on bats. But I am certain of something else. Their way of life, mobile, conditional, and opportunistic, will outlast many grander designs. Small passengers often survive the longest journeys.
Christophe Avon, 2026
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Photos 1-2: 1. The insectivorous bat Vespadelus regulus (Thomas, 1906) and its opportunistic passenger 2., an adult male of Enigmachernes parnabyi Harvey, 2025. This large and robust chernetid was discovered firmly attached to its host in eastern Australia. Female specimens of the genus Enigmachernes remain unknown to science. Credit: Michael Pennay (Vespadelus regulus) and Mark S. Harvey (Enigmachernes parnabyi).
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Bibliography
Harvey, M.S. (2025). A new genus of Australian pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones: Chernetidae: Lamprochernetinae) associated with insectivorous bats (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). Australian Journal of Zoology, 73(6): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO25027
Krajčovičová K., Christophoryová J., Lučeničová T. (2015). Pseudoscorpions found in bird nests and in bat guano in Slovakia and Germany. Munis Entomology and Zoology, 10(2): 428-434.
Finlayson G.R., Madani G., Dennis G., Harvey M. (2015). First reported observation of phoresy of pseudoscorpions on an endemic New Zealand mammal, the lesser short-tailed bat, Mystacina tuberculata. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 42(4): 298-301. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.2015.1063517
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