Faunistic survey of pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones) collected from trees and using Malaise traps in Slovakia and the Czech Republic

Abstrakt: Altogether 390 pseudoscorpions belonging to 16 species and four families were examined during the present study. The samples were collected at more than 40 localities in Slovakia and one locality in the Czech Republic. The material includes specimens found in several microhabitats, such as mould of tree hollows, wood-decay fungi, dead wood, under tree bark, as well as specimens collected using Malaise traps, tree trunk photoeclectors and cardboard strips. A total of 13 species were found in tree hollows; the closest association with this type of microhabitat demonstrated by the species Allochernes wideri (C. L. Koch, 1843) and Dinocheirus panzeri (C. L. Koch, 1837). A total of 10 species were collected under tree bark; the most abundant was Chernes cimicoides (Fabricius, 1793). Both C. cimicoides and Chernes hahnii (C. L. Koch, 1839) showed a strong association with the microhabitat under tree bark. The Chernetidae family was the most abundant in all of the seven microhabitats examined, except for the samples from cardboard strips. In the cardboard strip samples, only the family Neobisiidae was collected. The species Pselaphochernes scorpioides (Hermann, 1804) was the most abundant in the samples from dead wood, wood-decay fungi and in Malaise traps.

Klíčová slova: Central Europe, habitat preference, Malaise trap, pseudoscorpion, tree bark, tree hollow, wood