Anything but insects and spiders

this guy is about 3mm long pseudoscorpion (which can be found in most gardens) possibly Neobisium carcinioides. most closely related to spiders, but to me their mouth parts look very scorpion like apparently they can inject venom through their claws.












tim

A panoramic centipede



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Let's see some beetles

Edited by chthoniid - 14 September 2009 at 00:58

Tukki wrote: That's a scary one, chthoniid! And here's a philosophical opilion.

heh, cute, I like the way the eye stands out, and the way the lines lead towards it in the composition.

That's a scary one, chthoniid! And here's a philosophical opilion.

Cracking shots, Tim, although they have me recoiling in horror having been caught by tiny black tick nymphs five times in the Spring of this year for the first time. I removed them long before they reached that level of engorgement but the bites itched and itched for days, and sometimes weeks. In this country (UK) the infection level is low but Lyme's disease is a growing risk if you don't spot them and remove them quickly enough.

chthoniid, it has been a real pleasure to see all of these. I have one shot of one but its very old, however recently something similar turned up unexpectedly, a Ixodes ricinus sheep tick, so i guess it belongs here too.

These things have been increasingly bringing diseases to denmark so they have a morbid kind of interest for me, even though i think they are about as ugly as an animal can get. Quite often they transmit borrelia and more recently meningoecephalitis that i beleive there is no effective treatment for.


Before they feed they look like something like this, however this is a totally different species that hunts prey (Not totally sure on the ID yet but it shows what they look like before they feed) rather than hangs onto humans dogs and sheep.



This one has recently fed (on a dog but is just at home on humans) increasing its size from about 3mm long to probably over a cm. After feeding they fall off and lay their eggs. This one didnt get the chance.

That black mark just above the head covered nearly the entire body before it started to feed.



They hang on to their host with sticky pads and claws on their feet, then they stick their head into the skin of the host. Before feeding their legs are much more normally positioned as in the red one above. After feeding they get splayed out on that ballon of a body, but they still work and they can move (not really a walk) around slowly with them.



The head really is not much more than a pair of teeth and a pin like stylus less than a mm long.



It looks like it has rudimentry eyes though?



One of the few animals I am really not keen on.

And a the harvestmen, not nearly as ornate or weird as the others. Oops forgot there was another one. To check the size of the second one have a look at the bug in the top right. It was in italy and i had never seen one so big :).








Tim


Edited by tpetpe - 01 September 2009 at 19:06

Well, I had to have a go at a local harvestman. ..Found a few hiding in the rhubarb..This one was nice enough to pose for a few seconds for this shot...