What was this spider/insect I saw?

Factual Questions
1

Last night in the garage, I saw a little spider crawling around on the wall. At least, I thought it was a spider. Being especially fond of creepy crawlies, I got up close to get a good look at it.

It had only 6 legs, but also seemed to have a fused cephalothorax, giving it only two body segments as opposed to the three that insects are supposed to have. I didn’t see any antennae, but I did see what looked like chelicera. It was only about a quarter to a half of an inch long, and just slightly wider due to the legs, which were splayed out and not held roughly underneath the body. It was pretty pale-looking, as if it had maybe just recently molted. It was also crawling a little slow; slower than I see other spiders move. If it really had just molted, I guess that could explain why.

Always eager to identify and learn more about the critters I find around the house, I got out the little field guide that so far has never failed me: The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders, by Milne & Milne, printed in 1994. My first guess was something like an ant-mimic spider, so I checked those out but they all clearly had 8 legs. I am 100% positive that the guy I found had only 6. I also saw that there were spider beetles: fulfilling the 6-leg requirement as well as supposedly looking like spiders. Unfortunately, none of them looked like the guy I saw either. They still had prominent antennae, and the legs were carried differently.

I flipped through all the rest of the guide–insects and spiders both–and found nothing like what I saw. I can’t for the life of me figure out what it was. Everything about it screamed “Spider!” except for the legs. I’m starting to wonder if maybe, by some bizarre coincidence, it really was a spider that just lost the same leg on either side. It didn’t seem to be injured, though…

So does anyone have any idea what I saw? I wish I’d thought to take a picture of it. If I find it again, I’ll do so and post it up somewhere.

2

Any guesses at all?

Are there any insect and/or arachnid specialists in here?

3

The only guess I had was maybe some kind of tick? However, many of them seem to either be too small or have eight limbs.

4

I thought about that too. The closest match I found was maybe a spider mite, but those guys are absolutely miniscule (the guide puts them at 1/64th of an inch). And, as you also point out, they all still have 8 legs…

5

http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_spiders/AntMimicJump.htm

These spider’ use their front legs to mimic antenna… Everything I found with my google searches (six leg spider) etc… say, spiderss always have eight lets and two body segments, while insects have 6 and 3.
Pictures buddy! that’s what we need. :slight_smile:
you might be famous for discovering a new species… :smiley:

6

I am trying to find it again to get a picture, but it’s a big garage for a small spider…

I guess maybe two of its legs were disguised as antennae in the front, but they were so small compared to the rest of the legs and looked very much like pedipalps instead of antennae (I meant to say pedipalps back in my OP; not chelicera). In the linked page, the spiders’ first legs are all much larger than what I took to be the pedipalps on what I saw. Also, in most ant-mimic spiders I’ve looked up, the cephalothorax and abdomen are connected with a narrow “waist,” making them look more like ants. This was not the case with the critter I saw.

Idunno. The more I think about it, the more I think it just may have lost two legs. I’ll continue to keep an eye out for it, at any rate.