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A Guest Post by Catalina Romero-Ortiz

Colombia, a South American country known for its beautiful landscapes, indigenous cultures, delicious food, and warm people, is also home to a remarkable diversity of birds, amphibians, vascular plants, fishes, and other biological groups. This makes it one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. With recent efforts towards peace, previously inaccessible areas due to conflict are now open for exploration.

Despite the incredible diversity in Colombia, pseudoscorpions, small arachnids that resemble scorpions, are still relatively unknown. Due to their size, they are often mistaken for mites or fleas, but they are completely harmless to humans, with their venom glands only used for hunting and self-defense. Their elusive nature makes them difficult to find and study. As a biodiversity hotspot, researchers believe that there are more species waiting to be discovered than the 63 currently known to science.

During her research on pseudoscorpions, Catalina Romero-Ortiz, along with Dr. Mark Harvey from the Western Australian Museum and Dr. Carlos Sarmiento from the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales of the National University of Colombia, discovered five new species and a new genus of these fascinating creatures. Their findings were recently published in the scientific journal ZooKeys. They also proposed a new classification for a species that was previously only known by its description, contributing to a better understanding of pseudoscorpions in Colombia. The star of their research is the newly discovered genus Paciwithius.