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"Believe it or not this is a real thing that I did not make up. Instead, I found it under a log, and not, say, in Hell, or in Skeletor's garage. As with all weird harvestmen, I thought to myself, ""I bet Marshall Hedin knows what this is,"" and indeed, perusing his Flickr photos quickly revealed something pretty close, which then led to Debbi's pic of the same on BugGuide, and then to this overview of this extremely weird subfamily. The pancake-flipping apparatus on its face (as Cassidy aptly named it), is of unknown function, and therefore *could* theoretically be used to flip tiny, tiny, infernal pancakes."
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"Believe it or not this is a real thing that I did not make up. Instead, I found it under a log, and not, say, in Hell, or in Skeletor's garage. As with all weird harvestmen, I thought to myself, ""I bet Marshall Hedin knows what this is,"" and indeed, perusing his Flickr photos quickly revealed something pretty close, which then led to Debbi's pic of the same on BugGuide, and then to this overview of this extremely weird subfamily. The pancake-flipping apparatus on its face (as Cassidy aptly named it), is of unknown function, and therefore *could* theoretically be used to flip tiny, tiny, infernal pancakes."
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"Believe it or not this is a real thing that I did not make up. Instead, I found it under a log, and not, say, in Hell, or in Skeletor's garage. As with all weird harvestmen, I thought to myself, ""I bet Marshall Hedin knows what this is,"" and indeed, perusing his Flickr photos quickly revealed something pretty close, which then led to Debbi's pic of the same on BugGuide, and then to this overview of this extremely weird subfamily. The pancake-flipping apparatus on its face (as Cassidy aptly named it), is of unknown function, and therefore *could* theoretically be used to flip tiny, tiny, infernal pancakes."
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"Believe it or not this is a real thing that I did not make up. Instead, I found it under a log, and not, say, in Hell, or in Skeletor's garage. As with all weird harvestmen, I thought to myself, ""I bet Marshall Hedin knows what this is,"" and indeed, perusing his Flickr photos quickly revealed something pretty close, which then led to Debbi's pic of the same on BugGuide, and then to this overview of this extremely weird subfamily. The pancake-flipping apparatus on its face (as Cassidy aptly named it), is of unknown function, and therefore *could* theoretically be used to flip tiny, tiny, infernal pancakes."
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"About 1/3"" across, under oak log. Long legs (some broken off). Very cool cryptic texture on back. Alas, it's pancake spatula is covered with dirt, but you can tell it is there! Thanks to Ken-ichi for providing a fabulously detailed description of his observation of this very weird species on the other side of the mountains three days ago: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1207572 ID as per https://www.flickr.com/photos/23660854@N07/5548809652/in/set-72157603944294012 and http://bugguide.net/node/view/368921/bgpage"
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"About 1/3"" across, under oak log. Long legs (some broken off). Very cool cryptic texture on back. Alas, it's pancake spatula is covered with dirt, but you can tell it is there! Thanks to Ken-ichi for providing a fabulously detailed description of his observation of this very weird species on the other side of the mountains three days ago: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1207572 ID as per https://www.flickr.com/photos/23660854@N07/5548809652/in/set-72157603944294012 and http://bugguide.net/node/view/368921/bgpage"
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Spatula and all.
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"Satan's pancake flipper, AGAIN. I so love this harvestmen. When I found it the rest of the group were further down the stream bed. It was so cryptic that I knew I couldn't take my eyes off it or I might lose it, so I stared at it intently for a few minutes until the rest of the group arrived, at which point I exclaimed ""Ortholasma! You must photograph this!"" And then I realized I was getting super excited and pointing at a creature nigh indistinguishable from a tiny fleck of soil unless you have a hand lens or a macro setup. This was the first of two I found. Habitat was quite a bit different than the moist, mixed tanoak / Doug fir / redwood mix at Gazos Creek, which was where I first encountered this beast. Instead they were crawling around a dry creek bed with moist soil, oak / bay canopy. I'm not sure how frequently this creek dries up in ""normal"" years (whatever that means these days), but the presence of snails (Trilobopsis and succinoids that may have been Catinella), burrowing mygalomorphs (Antrodiaetus riversi and and unidentified trapdoor spider), and riparian isopods (Ligidium gracile) suggest this area does retain moisture, if not surface water."
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Numero dos.
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"Satan's pancake flipper, AGAIN. I so love this harvestmen. When I found it the rest of the group were further down the stream bed. It was so cryptic that I knew I couldn't take my eyes off it or I might lose it, so I stared at it intently for a few minutes until the rest of the group arrived, at which point I exclaimed ""Ortholasma! You must photograph this!"" And then I realized I was getting super excited and pointing at a creature nigh indistinguishable from a tiny fleck of soil unless you have a hand lens or a macro setup. This was the first of two I found. Habitat was quite a bit different than the moist, mixed tanoak / Doug fir / redwood mix at Gazos Creek, which was where I first encountered this beast. Instead they were crawling around a dry creek bed with moist soil, oak / bay canopy. I'm not sure how frequently this creek dries up in ""normal"" years (whatever that means these days), but the presence of snails (Trilobopsis and succinoids that may have been Catinella), burrowing mygalomorphs (Antrodiaetus riversi and and unidentified trapdoor spider), and riparian isopods (Ligidium gracile) suggest this area does retain moisture, if not surface water."
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Santa Cruz mountains, under woody debris
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Alas - his pancake flipper was clogged with mud.
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Alas - his pancake flipper was clogged with mud.