Scorpionflies to pseudoscorpions

Wed 13 May 2020, 16:39 (last edited on Wed 13 May 2020, 16:41)

MY wife once joked it wouldn't be long before I was photographing flies, I was a little hurt I saw no reason in photographing a fly what would be the point! More recently she joked i would take a picture of an amoeba on the back of an amoeba and technically, theoretically I've done that as well but that's a different story.

There are 3 species of scorpionfly in Britain and I believe Charlbury has all 3, just one alludes me. The common scorpionfly is indeed common and frequent around charlbury, the Germanic scorpionfly less so but I do have a picture or 2. The scorpion snowfly or commonly known as a snow flea alludes me even though they can be seen in winter moving across snow hence their name.

They remind me of chimera from ancient myth, the body of an insect, wings of a fly, tail of a scorpion and beak of a bird weird or what? And completely harmless. Oh and they are closely related to the Common flea.

Pseudoscorpions can be found in Charlbury around dry stone walls, under stones and wood it's just they are tiny in size and takes a keen eye to spot. I myself have photographed only the knotty shining claw pseudoscorpion , to be honest I never thought I ever would see one other than on tv or pictures. 

There are 27 species in the UK 12 of them common ranging from 2-8mm in length and like their namesake some do glow in UV light but not in the same way. In scorpions it's the hard exterior and pseudoscorpions the soft tissue between the hard exterior. Oh and they are members of the spider family.

Flies, spiders you wouldn't believe what's out there until you actually look!