Feisty!

This tiny crab spider came in my window this afternoon. It was a simple matter to catch her*; crab spiders rely more on immobility and camouflage than on running away. And she "hid" on my green rug.

Taking her photo was another story.

A brief pause

She is as sassy as a jumping spider, always wanting to keep her eye on me, always turning towards the camera. But where a jumper is curious, this one is challenging. However I shepherded her into the light, once I freed her, she turned immediately to attack, lifting her front legs in a threat stance and walking steadily towards me. I'd get her focused in the shallow field that the macro gives me, and have to back up, back up, back up some more, finally to lose her in the shadow under the lens and start again.

"I'm going to eat you!"

Not that there was any danger. She's barely an eighth of an inch long, nose to tail.**

I finally put her on a cloth draped over an ice pack. That slowed her down, although she still kept heading my way. Wanting to measure her (and sure she'd attack my fingers on a ruler), I tore off a piece of graph paper*** and set it beside her. She obligingly moved onto it; after all, the paper was between her and that tempting camera lens.

Well, thank you, little one. So helpful!

* Males have rounded or clubbed pedipalps, the two "feelers" at either side of her face. Females' (and youngsters', as Christopher pointed out in the comments) pedipalps are pointed.

** And crab spiders are harmless to humans, anyhow.

*** The squares are exactly 1/4 inch on a side.

She's in a tiny jar on my printer. Tomorrow, I'll put her outside to find her own breakfast. I don't think it will take her too long.

Hairy, headlighted high-jumper. Also hungry.

Laurie found this jumping spider on the curtain pull this morning, and presented it to me in a tiny bead container. He always gives me the nicest things!

I think it's a Phidippus, possibly a male princeps.

Against the light, in the jar. See how hairy he is!

I had to put him in the fridge for a while to get him to sit still; I wanted a shot of all his eyes. There are eight; two in a line along the front, two 'way back on the sides of the head, and two tiny ones, barely visible, half-way back. He likes to keep the front headlight eyes focused on anything unusual in the environment. In this case, that meant my camera. It wasn't easy getting this angle shot; he kept turning to face me, even while he was sluggish from the cold.

"The better to see you with, my dear."

As he raced around the container (a larger one, with a pane of glass on top), trying to keep an eye on me as I turned and angled him towards the light, I saw a flash of blue; fangs! I hadn't seen these, except in photos, so I had to pester him some more. Sorry, Mr. Jumpy.

There are the fangs, barely visible behind the pedipalps. Blue-green, and very shiny.

Another shot with fangs: I call this one, "Bad hair day".

Look for the wicked, red, curved fang tips at the bottom.

Afterwards, it was snowing outside, so I set his container, unlidded, among a group of large-ish house plants behind my favourite reading chair; there will be small bugs there for him, springtails and mites and maybe a woodbug or two.

Ten minutes later, he was gone. I have wasted a good half hour, trying to find him again, without luck. He's well hidden. As long as he doesn't jump out onto my chair (or head!) while I'm reading, it's all good.

Feisty, fast, ferocious. I'm glad it's tiny.

The miniature crab spider that lives on my desk was hungry. She had eaten the last of the Indian meal moths from the bird seed, and I hadn't fed her for almost a week. But bug season is beginning; even in my shady yard, a few small flies are showing up. I went out hunting for something the spider might like.

Under a dead maple leaf, I found a pillbug, far too big. But I gathered a handful of leaves and brought them inside to search for spider goodies. I found a couple of springtails; that would do.

Something ran out from under a leaf. Tiny, like a springtail, but it didn't hop. Whenever I tried to pick it up with my skinny paintbrush, it raced backwards, as fast as it had been running forward.

Under a magnifying glass, it waved big, angular pincers at me, like a crab would. I captured it, finally, in a drop of water, then photographed it with the camera and the microscope.

Pseudoscorpion, 1.9 mm long, nose to rear, not counting pincers.

My first thought was "beetle"; some beetles have quite impressive pincers. But it has a waist, and the abdomen is segmented. There are no wings or wing covers. And it has eight legs, which makes it an arachnid, a relative of the spiders.

There are four pages of photos of non-spider arachnids in my insect and spider book. It took only a minute to find a similar family; Chernetidae. And another minute to find Chernetids on BugGuide and retrieve photos of pseudoscorpions. As to which pseudoscorpion, I will have to ask the BugGuide guides. The photo that most closely matches mine was taken in New York, far away. There are at least 26 species, in 7 families, here in Canada, and 3,400 species worldwide. (BugGuide)

Anytime he saw my shadow, he raised those big pincers high in the air, threatening me. Scary!

The pseudoscorpions are predators, like their kin, spiders, mites and ticks, and the "true" scorpions. The pincers have two parts; a large hand-claw combination, and a movable claw. This claw is venomous. (Not that I would worry; it's too small to penetrate my skin. Most are under 8 mm. or 1/3 inch long, )

They live in many habitats, including leaf litter, where I found mine, preying on small flies, mites, ants, even butterflies and worms, if they're small enough. They also eat carpet beetle larvae, which makes them heroes in my eyes; the larvae got one of my favourite sweaters last winter.

The mouthparts include four sharp points, rather like another large pair of pincers. I can't find any mention of these being poisonous.

Head of pseudoscorpion, showing the mouth. I am not sure whether I'm seeing eyes or not.

A few interesting facts from Wikipedia:

The abdomen is short and rounded at the rear, rather than extending into a segmented tail and stinger like true scorpions. 

They may have two, four or no eyes. 

During digestion, pseudoscorpions pour a mildly corrosive fluid over the prey, then ingest the liquefied remains.

Pseudoscorpions spin silk from a gland in their jaws to make disk-shaped cocoons for mating, molting, or waiting out cold weather. 

Chelifer cancroides is the species most commonly found in homes, where they are often observed in rooms with dusty books. There the tiny animals (2.5 to 4.5 mm) can find their food like booklice and house dust mites. They enter homes by "riding along" with larger insects (known as phoresy), or are brought in with firewood.

They also ride under beetles elytra, preying on the mites that plague the beetles. Wikipedia has a photo of one riding a small fly.

Steve Taylor (Illinois Natural History Survey) has some great photos of pseudoscorpions of the US.