this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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http://soilbugs.massey.ac.nz/pseudoscorpions.php

Pictured here crawling along my shorts. Apparently they'll attach themselves to flys and other flying insects to grab a ride off to other places.

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[โ€“] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I got excited when I learned that they ride on flying insects and immediately had to search for pictures! They do not disappoint.

Also learned today: this behavior is apparently called phoresy.

[โ€“] kautau@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

Wow they are way smaller than OPs picture led me to believe

[โ€“] SatyrSack@lemmy.one 5 points 10 months ago

Goin' on a lil phorsey ride

[โ€“] nz_fish@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's cool, never seen one of those. What part of the country are you in?

[โ€“] happy_piwakawaka 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm in Wellington, but they're apparently everywhere - just we tend not to notice them since they're pretty small and like live under leaves and stuff

[โ€“] DessertStorms@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I made the mistake of looking up whether these live in the UK too, to find there are 27 species of them here. And now my skin won't stop crawling...๐Ÿ˜ฉ

(I know they are very small, harmless to humans, and mostly live outside, but arachnophobia doesn't discriminate lol)

[โ€“] Venator 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you think that's scary, don't look up how many species of spiders there are ๐Ÿ˜…

[โ€“] DessertStorms@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago

But I already know that.. This is a new thing I was hoping I could avoid thinking about because they didn't exist locally, only they do, a lot..

[โ€“] Anticorp@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Pinchy uber

[โ€“] trafficnab@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago

Often seen around books and sometimes called the "book scorpion", they prey on booklice that like snacking on bookbinding glue

They are also a natural predator to carpet beetle larva, which are pests that eat natural fibers (like some carpets)

[โ€“] thatsTheCatch 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I've seen these, too! Unlike scorpions, which inject their venom through their tail stinger, pseudoscorpions inject their venom through their pincers! This seems a lot more logical tbh and it's why they don't have a tail

[โ€“] chandz05@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's awesome! I've never heard of these! Arachnids that are not spiders, but not scorpions either. Fascinating

[โ€“] Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Ticks are also arachnids that are not spiders or scorpions. Same with chiggers. There are plenty of arachnids other than spiders and scorpions... actually, I think that about covers it.

[โ€“] tslnox@reddthat.com 3 points 10 months ago

They're so repulsive and yet so beautiful.

[โ€“] Dave 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What's the scale here? Your link says they are typically less than 5mm, is that about the size of this one?

I'm wondering how many I've been around and not noticed?!

[โ€“] happy_piwakawaka 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I would guess around 3mm for that one. I've never seen them either but happened to look down and saw it crawling on me while gardening

[โ€“] Dave 2 points 10 months ago

That's cool! I particularly like how some species travel by fly-back ๐Ÿ˜†

[โ€“] Communist@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You've been around tons guaranteed, unless you're in the arctic

[โ€“] Dave 3 points 10 months ago

That's really cool. From the article it seems they are everywhere but never swarms of them just small numbers.

[โ€“] Ozymati 2 points 10 months ago

So awesome!