Can anyone identify this insect?

November 15, 2006 9:33 AM

Can anyone identify this insect?

Apologies for the poor quality of the image, but its the best I could get.



It looks a bit like a scorpion or crab with those big antenna or pincers but it moves like a spider. I've asked around and no one has seen anything like it before, and there it was climbing down my wall. It doesn't look native to the uk to me.

posted by feelinglistless to pets & animals (11 answers total)

The description vaguely matches something my daughter recently found here in the US. Can you link to that image?
posted by horseblind at 9:35 AM on November 15, 2006

Didn't see an image, but it sounds like a vinegaroon or possibly a solfugid. Both are native to the desert here in Southern California.
posted by buggzzee23 at 9:43 AM on November 15, 2006

Yup, I've also seen something fitting that description - I'm pretty sure it was here in the UK. Sorry though, I don't know what it's called - I'm keen to know too.
posted by Flashman at 10:06 AM on November 15, 2006

Here is a link to an image. I forgot about the embargo.
posted by feelinglistless at 10:14 AM on November 15, 2006

The abdomen looks rather rounded. It may just be a crab spider.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 10:26 AM on November 15, 2006

A pseudoscorpion?
posted by sarahw at 10:47 AM on November 15, 2006

yep pseudoscorpion.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 11:11 AM on November 15, 2006

Tailless scorpion?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:12 AM on November 15, 2006

Thanks to previous AskMefi threads that have given me What's That Bug?. They say it's a pseudoscorpion too.
posted by youngergirl44 at 12:54 PM on November 15, 2006

Thanks everyone, brilliant. I've just set him free and he's scurried along the window ledge...
posted by feelinglistless at 1:41 PM on November 15, 2006

Dynamite. This is exactly what my daughter found. Now I get to tell her what it is. Yay! Thanks for asking.
posted by horseblind at 1:47 PM on November 15, 2006