Something ran out from under a leaf. Tiny, like a springtail, but it didn't hop. Whenever I tried to pick it up with my skinny paintbrush, it raced backwards, as fast as it had been running forward.To discover what it actually is, read the post at Wanderin' Weeta - an excellent nature blog.
Under a magnifying glass, it waved big, angular pincers at me, like a crab would. I captured it, finally, in a drop of water, then photographed it with the camera and the microscope.
Thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteA few summers ago I found one of these attached to the bottom of a housefly I swatted in my apartment. I had a USB microscope at the time, so I took some video:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zK2OhpTido
I was absolutely petrified of this thing at the time. I couldn't sleep without thinking of flies landing on my face while I slept dropping this nasty things off to eat my flesh.
It took me a while to find out it was a pseudoscorpion and totally harmless (even beneficial by eating other arthropods).
Interesting video, especially the way it seems to be trying to gag itself with its pincer. Maybe it's trying to get the taste of fly out of its mouth. :.)
ReplyDeleteLOL. Apparently the claws are specially designed to clean their mouth apparatus... so I guess it did have a bad taste. =P
ReplyDeleteI thought this thing was some horrible unknown species of louse at the time, so I contacted some scientist who gave me the pseudoscorpion run down.