Thursday
Jan232014
Pseudoscorpions
Thu 2014-01-23
From the spring of 2012: a pseudoscorpion hanging on to the leg of a Lonchaeid fly (Diptera: Lonchaeidae). Pseudoscorpions are arachnids not insects, Some species are phoretic, that is to say they hitch lifts on flying insects. The above fly appeared unable or unwilling to fly off with the pseudoscorpion attached and the latter eventually let go.
I took the pseudoscorpion home with me to get a closer look at it but was unable to identify it any further:
Here is another that I found last November on some fungus:
First photo and first specimen taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2012-05-24.
Second specimen taken in the Wilderness on 2013-11-02.
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