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Project Noah Nature School
Alpaida truncata
A strange looking arachnid. The body shape is very like the common whip scorpion, but the front appendages and coloration is something I've never seen before. This example is small (2-2.5 cm), black on the thorax and first segments of the legs. The abdomen is black with white stripes and the last leg segments are light colored. The front legs appear to have a larger "joint" where the last segment starts and then a very thin claw. Perhaps a Crab Spider.
This was found on a leaf along the edge of a clearing in the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador.
I assumed this was a spider when I took the picture. It dropped off the leaf and was immediately lost before I could get a decent picture. When looking at the pictures on computer I noticed the similarity to the Whip Scorpions/Crab Spiders. I've never seen one like this. Hope someone can help identify it, at least to the Genus level.
Spotted on Oct 20, 2011
Submitted on Feb 9, 2019
4 Comments
Thanks Paul. I will try to run down an ID from the angle of a mimic spider.
Hi Tukup , there is a Neotropical genus of spiders ---Cheliferoides ,that mimic Pseudoscorpions , it may be one of those .
Yes. I just snapped the shot and when it fell I forgot about it. It's been a while ago now so I don't even remember a lot of details. But the front appendages have me stumped.
Interesting, indeed!