I promised to find one for you so I’ve been on my knees for ages, nose down, rummaging in wrinkled dry beech leaves. Searching, I’ve disturbed sinuous scarlet centipedes barely 2mm in girth, bewildered woodlice and shiny pill millipedes and a host of athletic springtails that fire themselves into the air to escape my probing fingers. Everything is in miniature but wars continue on the forest floor.
Finally I find one. Camouflaged, the colour of the iron-rich Sussex soil, glimmering as if she’s been polishing up her exoskeleton ready to meet you.
At first though, she’s not keen. She raises her tiny claws to threaten me. That makes me laugh, and my breath propels her a little way across the ground.
I surround her with my clumsy great fingers and trick her onto my hand. There she sits – claws still raised – waiting for the attack. No more than 3mm long, but fearless.
‘Come! Look! I’ve found one – just as I promised. So cute, so perfect but a predator nevertheless. A pseudoscorpion: a wee critter without a sting. What do you think!?’
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| Neobisium sylvaticum photo by BKoe - https://www.flickr.com/photos/bkoe/323398309/ |