Southeastern Cave Pseudoscorpion
Hesperochernes mirabilis (Banks, 1895)

Taxonomy

Description

Diagnostic characters

Ecological class

Troglobiont

Realm

Terrestrial

Troglomorphy

Troglomorphic

Distribution

Type locality

Indian Cave, Barren Co. KY

Range

Known from 103 counties across eight states across two karst regions.

Continent

North America

Country

United States

States and provinces

Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia

Counties

Alabama

Blount, Colbert, DeKalb, Jackson, Jefferson, Lauderdale, Madison, Marshall, Morgan

Georgia

Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Murray, Walker

Illinois

Monroe

Indiana

Crawford, Harrison, Jefferson, Jennings, Martin, Monroe, Orange, Washington

Kentucky

Adair, Barren, Bullitt, Carter, Christian, Edmonson, Estill, Harlan, Hart, Jackson, Jefferson, Laurel, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Warren, Woodford

Ohio

Adams, Highland, Ross

Tennessee

Anderson, Bedford, Bledsoe, Campbell, Cannon, Claiborne, Clay, Coffee, Cumberland, Davidson, DeKalb, Dickson, Fentress, Franklin, Giles, Grundy, Hamilton, Hickman, Jackson, Knox, Lawrence, Lincoln, Loudon, Marion, Marshall, Maury, McMinn, Meigs, Monroe, Montgomery, Moore, Overton, Perry, Putnam, Rhea, Roane, Rutherford, Smith, Sumner, Union, Van Buren, Warren, Wayne, White, Wilson

Virginia

Barren, Bath, Giles, Highland, Lee, Montgomery, Roanoke, Rockingham, Russell, Scott, Shenandoah, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wythe

Karst regions

Appalachians, Interior Low Plateau

Specimens

Collections holding material

2 cataloged lots in 1 collection. Compiled from GBIF and not an exhaustive census: many collections are not yet digitised, and holdings are added continually. Search GBIF for specimen records.

Download all 2 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.

Conservation and management

NatureServe

G5 Secure

Global rank last reviewed 21 August 2002.

Subnational ranks

Alabama

SNR Unranked

Georgia

SNR Unranked

Indiana

S4 Apparently Secure

Kentucky

S3 Vulnerable

Ohio

SNR Unranked

Tennessee

S3 Vulnerable

Virginia

SNR Unranked

Ranks looked up 23 August 2026. Conservation status changes, and a rank here is as current as that date and no more.

State and federal status

Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Other resources

Catalogue of Life

3L59M

GBIF

2127821

ITIS

199593

iNaturalist

172610

References

• Banks, N. 1895. Notes on the Pseudoscorpionida. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 3: 1–13. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25002639. details
• Barr, T.C., Jr. & Kuehne, R.A. 1971. Ecological studies in the Mammoth Cave system of Kentucky. II. The Ecosystem. Annales de Speleologie 26: 47–96. doi:10.5038/1827-806X.3.1.10
• Chamberlin, J.C. & Malcolm, D.R. 1960. The occurrence of false scorpions in caves with special reference to cavernicolous adaptation and to cave species in the North American fauna (Arachnida-Chelonethida). American Midland Naturalist 64: 105–115.
• Dixon, G.B. & Zigler, K.S. 2011. Cave-obligate biodiversity on the campus of Sewanee: The University of the South, Franklin County, Tennessee. Southeastern Naturalist 10: 251–266. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41263008. details
• Harker, D.F., Jr. & Barr, T.C., Jr. 1980. Caves and associated fauna of the Western Kentucky coal field, Volume 2. Kentucky Nature Preserves Commission, Frankfurt, Kentucky, USA. 114 pp.
• Lawson, K.M., Schotz, A.R., Jenkins, A.J., Armbruster, J.W., Black, C., Callahan, M., Goertzen, L., Hansen, C., Stephen, C.D.R., Werneke, D., Mendonca, M. & Molina, E. 2021. Planning level survey of Redstone Arsenal for at-risk species and ecologically significant communities. Environmental Management Division, U.S. Army Garrison, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, USA. 402 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. 2004. Interstate 66 karst faunal study. Environmental Impact Statement. 17 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. 2005a. A biological inventory of caves of the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 156 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. 2009b. Eight new cavernicolous species of the milliped genus Pseudotremia (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida: Cleidogonidae). In: Roble, S.M. & Mithcell, J.C. (eds), A Lifetime of Contributions to Myriapodology and the Natural History of Virginia: A Festschrift in Honor of Richard L. Hoffman’s 80th Birthday. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 16, pp. 171–186. Virginia Museum of Natural History, Martinsville, Virginia, USA.
• Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2005. Inventory of the subterranean fauna of Tims Ford State Park, Franklin County, Tennessee. Tennesee Natural Heritage Program, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 28 pp.
• Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2007. A biological reconnaissance of selected caves in the Highland Rim area of central Tennessee. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 42 pp.
• Lewis, J.J., Whitaker, J.O. & Krantz, G.W. 2010. A biological reconnaissance of the invertebrate fauna of twelve Tennessee caves with notes on the guanophilic mites of the genus Macrocheles. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 85: 53–61.
• Muchmore, W.B. 1996. The genus Tyrannochthonius in the eastern United States (Pseudoscorpionida: Chthoniidae). Part II. More recently discovered species. Insecta Mundi 10: 153–168. https://journals.flvc.org/mundi/article/view/24826/24157. details
• Niemiller, M.L., Anderson, C.L., Maxwell, E.C., Midgette, H., Quering, C., Richards, M., Wilson, K. & Wirwa, N. 2025b. A noteworthy range extension of the federally endangered Alabama Cave Shrimp (Palaemonias alabamae) south of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama. Southeastern Naturalist 24: N47-N58. doi:10.1656/058.024.0403
• Niemiller, M.L., Fenolio, D.B. & Zigler, K.S. 2012b. The obligate cave fauna of Georgia. Bulletin of the Georgia Speleological Survey 2012: 6–12.
• Niemiller, M.L., Slay, M.E., Inebnit, T., Miller, B., Tobin, B., Cramphorn, B., Hinkle, A., Jones, B.D., Mann, N. & Niemiller, K.D.K. 2023a. Fern Cave: a hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the Interior Low Plateau karst region of Alabama in the southeastern United States. Diversity 15: 633. doi:10.3390/d15050633
• Niemiller, M.L. & Zigler, K.S. 2013. Patterns of cave biodiversity and endemism in the Appalachians and Interior Plateau of Tennessee, USA. PLOS One 8: e64177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064177
• Niemiller, M.L., Zigler, K.S., Hart, P.B., Kuhajda, B.R., Armbruster, J.W., Ayala, B.N. & Engel, A.S. 2016a. First definitive record of a stygobiotic fish (Percopsiformes, Amblyopsidae, Typhlichthys) from the Appalachians karst region in the eastern United States. Subterranean Biology 20: 39–50. doi:10.3897/subtbiol.20.9693
• Niemiller, M.L., Zigler, K.S., Hinkle, A., Stephen, C.D.R., Cramphorn, B., Higgs, J., Mann, N., Miller, B.T., Niemiller, K.D.K., Smallwood, K. & Hardy, J. 2023b. The Crystal-Wonder Cave System: a new hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the southern Cumberland Plateau of south-central Tennessee, USA. Diversity 15: 801. doi:10.3390/d15070801
• Peck, S.B. 1989. The cave fauna of Alabama. Part I. The terrestrial invertebrates (excluding insects). National Speleological Society Bulletin 51: 11–33.
• Reeves, W.K., Jensen, J.B. & Ozier, J.C. 2000. New faunal and fungal records from caves in Georgia, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 62: 169–179. https://caves.org/wp-content/uploads/Publications/JCKS/v62/v62n3-Reeves.pdf. details
• Stephen, C.D.R. 2022. Gene flow, morphology, and taxonomic revision of cave-obligate Hesperochernes pseudoscorpions. Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA. 151 pp. https://etd.auburn.edu/bitstream/handle/10415/8182/StephenCDR_dissertation.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y. details
• Trumbore, L.E., Reynolds, R.J., Thomas, S.C., Orndorff, W., Cramphorn, B., Gladstone, N.S., Harden, C.W., Lewis, J.J., Milne, M.A., Ober, K.A., Shear, W.A., Stephen, C.D.R. & Zigler, K.S. 2024. Cave biodiversity of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 86: 13–24. doi:10.4311/2022LSC0116
• Zigler, K.S., Niemiller, M.L., Stephen, C.D.R., Ayala, B.N., Milne, M.A., Gladstone, N.S., Engel, A.S., Jensen, J.B., Camp, C.D., Ozier, J.C. & Cressler, A. 2020. Biodiversity from caves and other subterranean habitats of Georgia, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 82: 125–167. doi:10.4311/2019LSC0125

How to cite this account

Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.

Spotted something wrong on this page? Report a correction. Accounts are compiled from many sources and corrections from people who know the group are the most useful email we get.