ackthpt's Journal: Wind Scorpions/Sun Spiders

Climbing the stairs at work I spy what looks like a VERY large spider, stranded between steps. I prod it with a pen and it proves to be very quick and agile, capable of leaping several inches. I empty a water bottle and catch it in the bottle. It's clearly pissed and adopts a threatening stance safely behind a few mills of plastic. It looks like it has 10 legs and has a pair of beaks rather than the usual aparatus. I quick search on google for 'spider 10 legs' brings up some promising results, family solifugid - commonly called Sun Spiders/Wind Scorpions. A little reading yields the information this is no true spider, but is an arachnid, somewhere between spiders and scorpions. After a bit more searching I find this site which is a pretty good read. I work in an area which is near-desert so this shouldn't be too surprising, but it's a new creature to me. About 20 years go, living in Michigan, which is frozen about half the year, I found something else which was quite a surprise, climing the wall of the bath, a pseudoscorpion. Tiny, but unmistakeable pincers. Neat stuff.

Similar bugs

[GoRK]

I have similar bugs; they are about an inch long at most and look basically like a scorpion without a tail. I didn't have a clue what they were until your pointer.

Of course I also have brown recluse spiders allover the place, so I'm not exactly worried aobut these little buggers too much.

Slugs

[Shadow Wrought]

Whilst living in the Bay Area the family in the apartment below me were recent imigrants from Narobi (IIRC). I came home from work one day and the father and his two suns were transfixed by a slug on the stairs.
"What is that?" he asked me pointing.
"You mean the slug?"
"Yeah, what is a slug?"
"Well, its like a snail only without the shell. Can I assume you don't have those back home?"
"No, nothing like that at all..."
AFAIK they were out there a considerable time just fascinated by such a new creature to