Ecologia e evolução do comportamento social em pseudoescorpiões neotropicais: o exemplo de Paratemnoides nidificator (Atemnidae)

Abstract

In the last two decades new species were discovered living in complex social organizations, besides the hymenopterans and isopterans. Examples as the naked mole-rat, coral-reef shrimps, aphids, thrips and beetles were added to the lists of eusocial species. Intermediate degrees of sociality were also described in arachnids as the spiders, amblypygids and uropygids, harvestmen, scorpions, and now pseudoscorpions. Although there is great resistance in the use of social behavior classifications, which usually privilege the eusocial species, we cannot deny that a lot of species took convergent pathways. Independently of the degree of social complexity, each species has unique perspectives in understanding the evolution of cooperative behaviors, especially the intermediate species. In this manuscript I present the natural history of a small social-permanent arachnid, capable to live in large colonies maintained by collective work and complex cooperative behaviors. Although it is not a new species for the science, we know very little about it social behavior. Now, we know that only two among the more than three thousand known pseudoscorpion species live in complex obligate societies. In this study we will present the natural history of Paratemnoides nidificator (Balzan, 1888) (Atemnidae) and their differences in relation to solitary pseudoscorpions; cooperative forage and dispersion and it implications for the maintenance of sociality in this group. We will discuss the existence and the evolution of division of labor; and also the existence that a second way of social life based on parasitism; and finally, a revision about the social behavior in the Pseudoscorpiones order and an evaluation of the main factors in the selection this way of life. These small and discreet animals can tell us a surprising history and help us to better understand the evolution of the social behavior in arthropods.