Pseudoscropion

[tpe]

These were from a friends appartment in Copenhagen Denmark, he has found three of them in reasonably short sucession. They are large compared to other pseudoscorpions I have seen (about 3mm body length).
If anyone knows what they are he would be very interestead in hearing (hopefully not the only protected pseudoscorpion in Denmark 'stellas'). One of his friends happens to have access to an electron microscope so we have asked if we can get one of them gold plated and a picture, if we get so lucly I will be sure to link it here.
Incedently this species is much easier to shoot than the last ones I saw, which were much more shiny, and ended up with a nasty reflection when shot with the same setup. Here is one (a bit smaller at about 2mm body length)...

or

Tim

 

[orionmystery]

Very nice set, esp like the first two.

 

[tpe]

Many thanks Kurt,

BTW the icumon imitating jumper was fantastic.

A little update with some stacked shots under a compound microscope...

The 3d shots didnt work well. There is a nasty halo effect and transparent limbs from the stacking in CombineZP. I will try and fixt these when there is time. They are also landscape format with was a bit of a mistake. I have a few stacks where they are portrait, hopefully they weill work better. If anyone wants to see the not so good attempts they are here...
http://www.scientificillustration.net/_temp/pseudoscorpion_18.jpg
http://www.scientificillustration.net/_temp/pseudoscorpion_17.jpg
Thanks
Tim

 

[Forkie]

The microscope shots are stunning. I didn't know there were Pseudoscorpions in Northern Europe. I thought they'd be more confined to the warmer Southern European countries. After seeing these shots, I looked them up and found they are widely distributed in the UK too. I must keep an eye out for these fellas, they look amazing!

 

[tpe]

Many thanks Forkie.

These things are everywhere but very unobtrusive so have been hard to find. Apparently they are in many appartments but I have never seen one there. The easiest way to find them for me is to look among grass and leaves at the foot of a tree. Apparently there are some easier ways, and their prime habitat is in birdsnests. So if you get a chance have a look where there may be nesting birds. If you go for a bulk method such as bagging leaf litter and filtering it in a 5mm sive then watch out as apparently they get eaten by spiders very quickly. You should be able to find some in more or less any garden just by looking in leaf litter with a magnifying glass.

I hope you see some and let us know.

Tim

 

[sniperbob13]

Great pictures. I love pseudoscorpions. The only place I have found them in the US was under the bark of a log on a warm winters day. If you have trouble finding them in the grass try there, might even find some other tiny insects to shoot.