What the heck is this?
I love your website. I have learned SO much while searching for this beetle/spider/tick looking thing. I took pictures the best I could. I’m sorry if they aren’t as clear as they could be. This little guy was determined to get back under the rock. We live in Arkansas, up on top of a mountain, and it is very rocky up here. My husband was clearing some of the bigger rocks out of the back yard when he found one of these yesterday. He didn’t get back to it in time to take a picture so he went back out there today and was able to find another. He was approximately 1 1/2" total, legs and all. His body looks like a tick with no visible head that we could find. It appears to have eyes up on top of the front of his body. I could even make out a smiley face when I looked at him upside down 🙂 Yes, I have spent WAY too much time looking at the pictures of this thing. I have scoured your website trying to find what he/she is but haven’t found him yet. Can someone please help me identify it? I know you are extremely busy so thank you so much for any help that you might be able to give us. Thank you for the awesome resource you are providing!
Damon & Kristi Whitener
P.S. We didn’t kill him 🙂
Hi Damon and Kristi,
This is a harmless Harvestman. We believe we have found a match on BugGuide. It looks to us like Vonones ornata. You should submit your photos to BugGuide as they have not received any reports from Arkansas, though images of this genus have been submitted from surrounding states.