The book scorpion is a house-dwelling pseudoscorpion, flat enough to move between pages and shelves. Its prey are small soft-bodied arthropods: booklice, dust mites, psocids, clothes moth larvae and small flies. Aristotle appears to have described a scorpion-like animal among books, and the association has persisted in the name ever since.
The pincers do more than grasp. Book scorpions carry venom glands in the pedipalps, used to subdue prey; the venom has no effect on humans, and the animal is far too small to break skin. Silk from glands in the chelicerae is spun into a small chamber for moulting, brooding and overwintering.
Beekeepers have taken a renewed interest in the species, since book scorpions occur naturally in hives and have been observed feeding on Varroa mites in laboratory settings. Whether they can be established at densities that meaningfully suppress Varroa in working hives is unproven, and enthusiasm has run ahead of the evidence.