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Photo#728854
Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides

Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides
Cowichan Valley, British Columbia, Canada
December 6, 2012
Size: ~2.5-2.7mm body length
Found on the wall of the mini house our outdoor rabbits stay in at night.

After spending quite a while working through the Photographic key to the Pseudoscorpions of Canada and the adjacent USA, taking shots as I went, I strongly suspect this is a male Chelifer cancroides. See remarks on the detail images for my reasoning.

As always, he was photographed live and not harmed in any way for the series. It went a lot smoother than I expected. He wasn't nearly as jumpy as the Linyphiid spiders I've been hanging around lately.

Variations on my spider palp shooting setup worked for the detail shots. In particular, keeping him under a microscope slide at its edge, so that some parts (like his palps, or chelicerae) weren't covered. That allowed for flexibility since shooting through glass at an angle causes a lot of distortion. I've left brief descriptions of what I did for each shot in the respective image remarks.

It was a time consuming process to get everything because of all the different nooks and crannies you've got to peer into to identify pseudoscorpions! My cluelessness about them didn't help any either. I ended up with a number of additional photos not posted because I took some wrong turns in the key!

I'd like to do more of these whenever I can find some again. If this guy was any indication, they're very cool! And engaging to work with. He was visually pretty alert, even turning to face my finger if I waved it near enough.

Images of this individual: tag all
Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides Pseudoscorpion - Chelifer cancroides

Moved tentatively... evidence looks good enough for me...
...even short of sworn testimony

Moved from Cheliferidae.

From Rod Crawford
"Your recent pseudoscorpion can be easily placed in Cheliferidae (by leg segment lengths plus venom apparatus on both fingers of the palp) but I couldn't swear it's C. cancroides."

Moved from Pseudoscorpions.

magnificent set, unprecedented level of detail in this section
hope experts chime in [i asked Steve Taylor to take a look]

 
nice pictures!
Very nice pictures. I agree that it is likely Chelifer cancroides (L.)

 
Thanks!
Thanks!

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