What are these insects?
- Thread starter MichaelB
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bbbamI
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
What are these insects?
Weird?.........that's all I've got.
Weird?.........that's all I've got.
veremchuka
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Is it alive and moving? The reason I ask is it looks like a dead dried up spider. Insects have 6 legs and spiders have 8. It is difficult to tell if there are 8 legs but it appears to be, but it well could be an insect.
OP
OP
Good observation, I should not have written insect. There are 8 legs, two appendages coming out the front that look like claws, and something out the bottom that looks like a fan-tail. The shell is hard. Dried up spider is possible.
veremchuka
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
No problem, insect is almost a generic term!
The fan-tail and claws have me stumped, I'm not aware of any spider with such features but I'm not an expert in this field.
This is a classic problem with Google images, how do you describe this? I'm sure you'd find it if you could use the picture.
BTW, I have a North American field guide to insects and spiders and I don't recall anything like that but I'm going to look through the 700+ images so this may take a while.
veremchuka
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Scorpion is a distinct possibility. Scorpions have pincers or claws and the tail has the stinger so that may have broke off and what is left is the "fan-tail" you see. I'm not sure where you are located, there's no scorpions in the northeast where I am but IIRC I think you are in the west? I'll check scorpions first, I think this is it.
REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
Looks like something in the scorpion family, but it isn't the common type we have down here in the southwest. Never seen any red coloration, only tan & brown.
veremchuka
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Do you live close to the ocean? I came across red crabs, if tiny could it be? If not near the ocean and in a climate where scorpions live then there is a red scorpion. Babies would be quite small like your image.
Google images is useless, apparently there's something called Red Scorpion a Russian military unit I suspect, I did not bother to figure out what it is, why too many pictures of them and stylized scorpions.
One thing for sure, we know it isn't
Rock me like a hurricane.....
Google images is useless, apparently there's something called Red Scorpion a Russian military unit I suspect, I did not bother to figure out what it is, why too many pictures of them and stylized scorpions.
One thing for sure, we know it isn't
Rock me like a hurricane.....
OP
OP
Found my magnifying glass (grandchildren were here, SIL) found the insect, granddaughter walked off with the glass.)
In front are not claws but stingers. Total length is about one half inch. It is dried so the 8 legs have fallen or broken off. The color is a deep mahogany - very nice. Location is near Chicago.
Veremchuka - agree the google isn't helping. Every search I do to see if there are scorpians in Chicago bring up ticket sales for you-know-who.
In front are not claws but stingers. Total length is about one half inch. It is dried so the 8 legs have fallen or broken off. The color is a deep mahogany - very nice. Location is near Chicago.
Veremchuka - agree the google isn't helping. Every search I do to see if there are scorpians in Chicago bring up ticket sales for you-know-who.
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veremchuka
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I'll bet my pension checks for the next year there are no scorpions in Illinois much less Chicago. But....
A real long shot, do you live in an apartment or condo where others may have scorpions that found their way into your area? Is it a new house you bought and the prior owner may have had scorpions? People have odd "pets"! Real long shots, while scorpion seems most likely, Illinois is just not desert conditions. Scorpions probably can tolerate freezing weather just not for long like Nov to March! In high deserts night time temperatures often drop to freezing or below. I've seen spiders active in my woodpile in December at +10 F, they move very slowly but they are moving. Arachnids are tough sobs!
A real long shot, do you live in an apartment or condo where others may have scorpions that found their way into your area? Is it a new house you bought and the prior owner may have had scorpions? People have odd "pets"! Real long shots, while scorpion seems most likely, Illinois is just not desert conditions. Scorpions probably can tolerate freezing weather just not for long like Nov to March! In high deserts night time temperatures often drop to freezing or below. I've seen spiders active in my woodpile in December at +10 F, they move very slowly but they are moving. Arachnids are tough sobs!
OP
OP
Well, we do have some neighbors that are kind of weird and we live next to a large forest preserve, but I won't take you up on that bet. In an early post I wrote claws but they are definitely stingers.
One possibility is a tick. Not sure if ticks have stingers, though.
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MichaelB said:
http://www.spiders.us/files/dysdera-crocata-1.jpg
Perhaps the spider Dysdera crocata, the woodlouse hunter after the distal parts of the legs have broken off and the abdomen has shriveled up?
OP
OP
Thanks for the link to that picture. The color is very close, both the body and the legs which are a bit lighter. I'm going to look for more images of the woodlouse hunter.
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MooreBonds
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
This website lets you post photos of your unknown pests for other viewers to attempt to identify.
Post #388 on that website kind of vaguely resembles your bug...but not exactly (it's a non-venomous spider, but has strong jaws)
Post #388 on that website kind of vaguely resembles your bug...but not exactly (it's a non-venomous spider, but has strong jaws)
OP
OP
That's it. The same one linked in the post by darnoc1. The post you linked refers to another, post 288, which shows another view that confirms - it includes the stingers I had not seen in other images.
Case closed. Wood louse spider. Thanks for all the help.
Woodlouse spider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You can proudly tell your entemologist he was right on.
It looked smushed but really it was dried and the legs fell off.
youbet
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
It's an icky bug of some sort! They like to live in your basement. And this one croaked.
Let's not make a big mystery out of this!
The fact that the Woodlouse spider dines exlusively on wood lice seems pertinent. I hope your example died from lack of wood lice to dine upon....... That's what you get for living next to a forest preserve.
Let's not make a big mystery out of this!
The fact that the Woodlouse spider dines exlusively on wood lice seems pertinent. I hope your example died from lack of wood lice to dine upon....... That's what you get for living next to a forest preserve.
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You can proudly tell your entemologist he was right on.
Woo hoo! Thanks! I just told him he was right and he yelled from the other room, "I know dad, that's what I told you".
