Yesterday my Mom spotted an interesting Arachnid. No, it wasn't a spider, but it had 8 legs. Thinking it was a tick (which are almost non-existent where I live, northern VT) we put it in a small plastic bag for my Dad to see.
Upon arriving home and examining the creature, it turned out to be a Pseudoscorpion.
Pseudo- fake, pretend, simulated, bogus, counterfeit
Scorpion- arachnid (eight-legged organism) with poisonous stinger
This is what Spiders and Their Kin had to say about Pseudoscorpions:
"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."
Yup, we had found it on the bathroom floor, as you can see, probably in search of moisture. We identified it as a House pseudoscorpion, Chelifer cancroides. This is a picture my Dad took with my digital camera by holding the camera lens up to the "eyes" of the microscope and snapping the pic:
Now, this thing is as big as a regular dog tick, so we were very surprised that the picture came out so well because the camera is not the best one in the world, although it does its job.
Well, have to run (but then again, it's my nose that's doing most of that today :-p )
The Entomologist
Photo credit:
Scott Costa, UVM
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• Saturday, June 24, 2006 - Cool Bug !!!!!
bfn,
-bugboy