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Field and Swamp: Animals and Their Habitats

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Non-Insect, Non-Spider Arthropods (Phylum Arthropoda, kingdom Animalia, domain Eukaryota)

Centipedes (class Chilopoda)

Scutigeromorpha order

   
I think this might be a member of a species of House Centipede    

Scolopendromorpha order

Centipede, Johnston Mill Nature Preserve, Orange County, NC, 11/03/07 Rural Chatham County, NC, 11/9/05. This very tiny centipede appeared under the bark of a dying tree. Centipede, Durham, NC, 12/19/06

Millipedes (class Diplopoda)

Times have changed!  I used to see Roly-polies (Pill Millipedes, order Glomerida) all the time, and now I can't remember the last time I saw any. 

Spirobolida order

Millipede (family spirobolidae), Durham, 8/4/06 Millipede (Narceus americanus), Southern Village walking path, Orange County, NC, 7/20/07.   The fly on top of the millipede followed it, landing in various different places on the millipede. Eno River State Park, Old Cole Mill Road access, 11/7/05.  This tiny probably immature millipede looked like a land-based Tubifex worm at a distance.

Polydesmidae order

Millipede (Sigmoria aberrans, family Xystodesmidae, Johnston's Mill Nature Preserve, Orange County, NC, 8/25/05.  This millipede species is found only in North Carolina and Virginia.  They pop up in my neighborhood in Durham regularly but infrequently. Millipede, Polydesmida order, Durham, NC, 11/9/07.  At first glance, it looks like a centipede, though.

Pseudoscorpions (order Pseudoscorpiones, class Arachnida, subphylum Chelicerata)

Although the House Pseudoscorpion is apparently the most familiar, pseudoscorpions of other species, of which there are several dozen in the U.S., are common in the soil and found in leaf litter.  They also have been known to hitch rides on other animals, transported merchandise,

       
Pseudoscorpion, Durham, NC, 4/7/17 Same pseudoscorpion Pseudoscorpion, about 1 mm long. Durham, NC, 8/25/09        

Harvestmen (order Opiliones, class Arachnida, subphylum Chelicerata)

We used to call these "Daddy-long-legs" when I was a kid, but now that common name is properly applied only to spiders.

A fast-moving harvestman (probably Vonones sayi) Harvestman with prey, NC Botanical Garden, Orange County, NC, 7/2/05.


Copyright © 2005-2020 Dorothy E. Pugh

REFERENCES

Jacobs, S. (2011) Pseudoscorpions.  Retrieved April 8,2011 from http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/pseudoscorpions

Nelson Jr., S. (2011) Pseudoscorpions: Entomology Notes #16.  Retrieved April 8, 2011 from http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/mes/notes/entnote16.html