Pseudoscorpion Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Pseudoscorpions (false scorpions) Temporal range: Devonian 380 mya to Recent

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Subclass:	Dromopoda
Order:	Pseudoscorpionida Haeckel, 1866

A book scorpion (Chelifer cancroides) on top of an open book

A pseudoscorpion is a tiny creature that looks a bit like a scorpion but is much smaller and harmless. They are also called book scorpions because you can sometimes find them in old books. These little animals are part of the arachnid family, which also includes spiders and real scorpions.

Pseudoscorpions are usually only about 2 to 8 millimeters long. That's smaller than a grain of rice! The biggest one ever found is called Garypus titanius. It lives on Ascension Island and can grow up to 12 millimeters, which is still very small.

What do Pseudoscorpions Eat?
- Their Favorite Foods
Pseudoscorpion Life Cycle
- How Pseudoscorpions Reproduce
Images for kids
See also

What do Pseudoscorpions Eat?

Pseudoscorpions are helpful hunters. They eat many small pests that we don't like to have around.

Their Favorite Foods

Because they eat these pests, people often like having pseudoscorpions around. They are very small and cannot hurt humans at all. You might not see them often because of their tiny size.

Pseudoscorpion Life Cycle

There are more than 3,300 different kinds of pseudoscorpions known around the world. These creatures have been around for a very long time! The oldest known pseudoscorpion fossil is about 380 million years old. This means they lived during the Devonian period, long before dinosaurs.

How Pseudoscorpions Reproduce

Some types of pseudoscorpions do a special "mating dance" to find a partner. This dance helps them attract each other.

After mating, the mother pseudoscorpion carries her eggs with her. She keeps them safe until the baby pseudoscorpions hatch. The young pseudoscorpions will stay with their mother for about a month after they are born.