Category Archives: Arachnida

Arachnids – scorpions, spiders, mites & ticks, harvestmen, pseudoscorpions, & relatives.

Answer to Super Crop Challenge #1

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

Seemingly correct answers came quickly to yesterday’s inaugural Super Crop Challenge, which featured a curious structure atop a harvestman (class Arachnida, order Opiliones) that I encountered while hiking the lower North Fork Section of the Ozark Trail in extreme southern Missouri. “Seemingly” … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Opiliones | Tagged , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Super Crop Challenge #1

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

ID quizzes and challenges seem to have become an increasingly popular subject for natural history blogs. I’ve done a few of my own, but my straight up ID challenges are starting to seem a little unimaginative compared to the DNA … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Opiliones | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Forgotten Foto Friday: Centruroides vittatus

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

I got this idea from Doug Taron over at Gossamer Tapestry, who credits Steve Borichevsky at Shooting my Universe for an occasional feature called Forgotten Photo Friday (hopefully my use of the alternative spelling “Foto” won’t be considered too presumptuous).  Perfect timing, as I recently … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Scorpiones | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Halloween ID challenge answer – Argiope trifasciata

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

Here is another photo of the spider in the previous post with a closer view of its spiny pedipalps (mouth feeler thingys).  Troy Bartlett and BitB’s own James Trager got it right – the spider is, indeed, Argiope trifasciata, the banded … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Araneae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Halloween ID challenge

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

Class and order are gimmes – can you name the family, genus, and species? Common name? Something significant about its biology or behavior? Photographed 25.ix.2010 in shortgrass prairie habitat atop the Pine Ridge in Sioux Co., Nebraska. Photo Details: Canon … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Araneae | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Phreaky Phalangid

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

While searching through shortgrass prairie atop the Pine Ridge in northwestern Nebraska in hopes of finding Cicindela nebraskana (prairie long-lipped tiger beetle), this harvestman caught my eye.  Harvestmen are, of course, arachnids related to spiders, but they lack fangs and … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Opiliones | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Jeepers Creepers, where’d ya get those multilayered retinae?

Posted on October 5, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to get a chance to blast down to the White River Hills in extreme southwestern Missouri.  Cicindela obsoleta vulturina (prairie tiger beetle) was my quarry – I had made arrangements to meet up … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Araneae | Tagged , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Hitchin’ A Ride

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

One of the more common species of longhorned beetles (family Cerambycidae) in Missouri, and throughout the eastern U.S., is Stenosphenus notatus.  Despite its commonness, however, it is a species that is easily overlooked because of its very early seasonality, emerging … Continue reading →

Posted in Cerambycidae, Coleoptera, Pseudoscorpiones | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments