Yesterday I found a pseudoscorpion under a wood chip in the garden! It's been ages since I spotted one.

I pointed out its little scorpion claws to the building manager who said "Yes, I see," even though, judging by the text size she has set on the office computer, she probably could not, in fact, see. I strongly doubt she is interested at all. Good. That'll teach her to try making small talk with me.

#bugstodon #arachnids #pseudoscorpions #Pseudoscorpiones #Chthoniidae #ArthroBeauty

Last night went out for a good bug ramble except I realized I forgot my light, so I went home and made do with my phone flash along the way. (OpenCamera has a torch flash mode where the flash is always on.)

- _Leptinotarsa_ potato beetles mating
- a huge _Clubiona_ leaf-curling sac spider eating a zebra jumping spider (_Salticus scenicus_)
- an ant war (_Tetramorium_?), this was only one of two large patches, with skirmishes up and down the sidewalk
- a *huge* sawfly larva? of some kind

#ArthroBeauty #bugstodon #spiders #insects #beetles #ants #sawflies #Araneae #Clubionidae #Salticidae #Coleoptera #Chrysomelidae #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #Symphyta

wanze am morgen

Schildkrötenwanze
Eurygaster testudinaria
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schildkr%C3%B6tenwanze

#BugOfTheDay #bugstodon #insekten #insects #krabbeltierchen #AuwaldRunde #nature #biodiversity #entomology

Today's whirligig mite (family Anystidae) menu:

- a plant bug nymph (family Miridae)
- another whirligig mite, or an old exoskeleton maybe?
- a thrips
-a small midge-like fly of some sort

Out of sheer curiosity I captured about half a dozen decently sized whirligig mites and put them on the brown-eyed Susan (_Rudbeckia triloba_) plants which are currently covered in large black aphids. (They do not seem to appreciably harm the plants, which will only mature and bloom much later in the year.) I am not sure if they'll even stay on the plant given how erratically they run around, nor if they'll go for the aphids.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #bugstodon #mites #arachnids #insects #thrips #flies #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae #Hemiptera #Heteroptera #Miridae #Thysanoptera #Diptera

These flatid leaf bug nymphs looked like flower petals but were quite active!

Isalo #Madagascar #bugstodon

#DailySpiderPic: found a couple of _Myrmarachne_ ant-mimic jumping spiders on the garden wall today! With their shape and coloration combined with fast staccato motion, if you're not looking closely it's easy to confuse them with their model, _Camponotus_ carpenter ants (pictured: a worker feeding on a bit of apple I gave them, also today).

#bugstodon #antstodon #arachnids #spiders #JumpingSpiders #insects #ants #mimicry #myrmecomorphy #Araneae #Salticidae #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #ArthroBeauty

On the menu today for the whirligig mites:

- aphid?
- big plant bug
- little plant bug
- sidewalk mite

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #bugstodon #arachnids #mites #insects #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae #Erythraeidae #Hemiptera #Miridae #Aphididae