Image courtesy of Tom Herlihy (Worm Power)
After reading my post about pseudoscorpions, my friend Shawn from Worm Power sent in a very cool image showing multiple pseudoscorpions teaming up to attack a fly. Totally wild!
All I know is that I would HATE be be that fly.
Yikes!
Thanks again for sending that in, Shawn.
Written by Bentley on June 23rd, 2008 with
3 comments.
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Bentley
#2.
February 24th, 2009, at 3:32 PM.
Interesting suggestion, Adam. I’m not sure which direction I’d lean (attack or transport). I think the use of flies as transport could be counterproductive since flies tend to land in all sorts of places other than compost heaps etc where pseudoscorpions would feel at home.
Hmmm…hard to say for sure though. I’ve yet to meet a pseudoscorpion who’s willing to talk!
Garrett
#3.
May 26th, 2011, at 9:41 PM.
That is a tough call. I’ve read papers about pseudoscorpions using flies as means of transportation, and also about some pseudoscorpions that will actually team up to take down larger prey. according to my understanding, the ones that have the semi-social cooperative hunting habits use their chelicerae (mouthparts) to pierce the prey and suck out the juices. Since you can’t see the mouthparts in this picture because of the angle, they could be feeding, but they may not be. Also, most of the pics I’ve seen of pseudoscorpions hitching a ride on another arthropod show the pseudoscorpion hanging from a leg by one of their pincers. These pseudoscorpions seem a lot closer to the body than I thought was typical. But I really can’t say either way from this angle. Both options seem equally likely.
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#1. February 19th, 2009, at 4:29 PM.
I wonder if they really were attacking. It looks too large to be prey, and Pseudoscorpions are well known for their habit of using flies as mass transport. There can be more than 7 hanging on a fly. If I remember right, 13 or more. I bet they’re really good to have around if the bed has mites.