My favourite NZ observation on #iNaturalist from the last couple of days is this stable fly photographed at Waihi by helenmacky.
It's a handsome enough fly, and it's a good photo, but what makes it stand out is the gang of at least seven pseudoscorpions all hitching a ride on it.
Don't you hate it when you pop down to your favourite flower for a refreshing sip of nectar, only to get a pseudoscorpion stuck to your face?
Freeloading floral hitchhikers!
Student Dustin Lamont found this pseudoscorpion attached to the probscis of the native NZ moth Pseudocoremia lupinata, on our ecology field trip to the Boyle Outdoor Education Centre in the Southern Alps last week.
I was looking through my photos from my run yesterday and looked closer at this photo of a NZ large hoverfly. It has a #pseudoscorpion hitching a ride on its foot!
The Common Naturalist has an article diving into the biology of pseudoscorpions and their habit of hitching a ride on other insects. Evidence from fossil amber shows that they've been doing this for at least 44 million years.