1. Urbanisation causes important losses in biodiversity and ecosystem of animals. To test whether these negative effects are preceded by unhealthy individuals in urban populations, we evaluated the effects of urbanisation on the abundance and physical condition of the dung beetle Dichotomius guaribensis, an endemic species of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.2. We sampled beetles in nine forest fragments with different urbanisation degrees, embedded in the urban matrix of the city of João Pessoa. Besides testing the abundance in each fragment, we quantified four indicators of physical condition in males and females: body size, body mass, energetic condition, and mite load.3. Females tended to be larger, and to have less lipid mass and more mites than males. Urbanisation had no effect on beetle abundance, but it negatively affected body mass and lipid content in males, but not females, revealing different sensitivities for both sexes. Body size and mite load were not affected by urbanisation in males or females. Fragment size had no effect on beetle abundance and physical condition in both sexes, suggesting that urbanisation has a greater impact than fragment size on beetle individual condition.4. In this study, we show that individual deterioration precedes population declines in disturbed environments, and our study opens new insights into the proximate causes that leads to the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in urbanised regions.

A new species of scorpion is described based on a rare entire adult male preserved in a cloudy amber from Miocene rocks in the Chiapas Highlands, south of Mexico. The amber-bearing beds in Chiapas constitute a Conservation Lagerstätte with outstanding organic preservation inside plant resin. The new species is diagnosed as having putative characters that largely correspond with the genus Tityus Koch, 1836 (Scorpiones, Buthidae). Accordingly, it is now referred to as Tityus apozonalli sp. nov. Its previously unclear phylogenetic relationship among fossil taxa of the family Buthidae from both Dominican and Mexican amber is also examined herein. Preliminarily results indicate a basal condition of T. apozonalli regarding to Tityus geratus Santiago-Blay and Poinar, 1988, Tityus (Brazilotityus) hartkorni Lourenço, 2009, and Tityus azari Lourenço, 2013 from Dominican amber, as was Tityus (Brazilotityus) knodeli Lourenço, 2014 from Mexican amber. Its close relationships with extant Neotropic Tityus-like subclades such as ‘Tityus clathratus’ and the subgenus Tityus (Archaeotityus) are also discussed. This new taxon adds to the knowledge of New World scorpions from the Miocene that are rarely found trapped in amber.

Thirty-two species of pseudoscorpions have been found co-existing with nine packrat (or woodrat) species of the genus Neotoma, and this association has been referred to as phoresy. Phoresy is a term for passive dispersal when an animal literally hitches a ride on another to reach a new habitat. The pseudoscorpions reported above live in or on the nests of the packrats and do not ride on the rats themselves, eliminating a truly phoretic association. All life-history stages of the small arachnids have been found in packrat nests, indicating at least a commensalistic relationship exists, whereby the pseudoscorpion benefits from shelter and food found in the nests, and reproduces there as well. Two pseudoscorpion species have been reported feeding on packrat ectoparasites, specifically larval and adult fleas, and thus a mutualistic relationship beneficial to both "guest" and "host" exists.RESUMEN. Treinta y dos especies de pseudoescorpion han sido halladas en los nidos de ratas del genero Neotoma, y esta asociacion ha sido llamada foresis. Foresis, sin embargo, es un termino especffico para dispersion pasiva donde un animal viaja sobre otro para llegar a un nuevo habitat. Los pseudoescorpiones viven en los nidos de las ratas y no han sido encontrados sobre las ratas mismas, descartando una verdadera asociacion foretica entre ellos. En los nidos de las ratas se han encontrado todos los estadios del ciclo de vida de los pseudoescorpiones, indicando que existe una asociacion comensalistica donde los pequenos aracnidos se benefician de la proteccion y el sustento que reciben en el nido, e incluso se reproducen en el. Se han reportado dos especies de pseudoescorpion alimentandose de los ectoparasitos de las ratas, especificamente de pulgas larvales y adultas, resultando en una asociacion mutualistica donde ambos el "huesped" y el "hospedero" se benefician.

Mites associated to the Coleopteran Passalus cognatus (Coleoptera:Passalidae) from Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. There are few records of mites associated with the tropical coleopterans of Mexico. We examined 35 passalid beetles (bessbugs) Passalus cognatus from Los Tuxtlas region in Veracruz State, Mexico. Twenty of them had a total of 245 mites (representing eight species, eight genera, eight families and three suborders). The most abundant species were Uroobovella californiana Wisniewski & Hirschmann (35%), Euzercon hyatti Hunter & Rosario (20%), and Uropoda sp. (17.5%). The preferred attachment areas were the coxae; followed by the mesosternum and the humeri. Each beetle had 1 to 40 mites (average: 12); and we found 1-4 mite species per beetle.

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