I found this little critter running across our bathroom floor yesterday. I was surprised because I thought it was a tick, something we don’t deal with much up here in the tundra. I had my oldest (the entomologist) scoop it into a Ziploc bag for my husband (this entomologist) to identify, especially if it was a tick.

I was a little curious, however, because I know insects have 6 legs, and this one had eight, yet it wasn’t a spider. A tick only acquires its 4^th pair of legs after feeding, and this was definitely not a fed tick. Also, when my son was catching it, its movements were extremely agile, including backward movement.

As soon as Bug Daddy got home, he glanced at it and said, “It’s not a tick. It’s a pseudoscorpion.”

A what?!

Pseudo- fake, pretend, simulated, bogus, counterfeit

Scorpion- arachnid (eight-legged organism) with poisonous stinger

While I ran for the field guides, hubby set up a microscope. We identified it as a House pseudoscorpion, Chelifer cancroides. This species is the largest of the pseudoscorpions, measuring 4mm. which this one easily does. The children all viewed it. Here is the photo of it alive under the microscope, and how we got the photo is here.

From Spiders and Their Kin, a Golden Guide, St. Martin’s Press, c. 1996, pp. 120-121

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Pseudoscorpions are common everywhere but are rarely seen because of their secretive habits. They do not have a long tail and stinger as do scorpions, but most have poison glands in their pincers, used solely to capture their prey, small insects.

House pseudoscorpions probably feed mostly on small insects and mites. In search of moisture they often become stranded in sinks or tubs.

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Sure enough, this one was found in the bathroom. It moved just like a regular scorpion, too.

It has been preserved in isopropyl alcohol, to be appreciated time and again as we wonder at God’s creation.