I’ve seen these around the apartment a couple of times. This one I found in the tub. Naturally, I was curious…
This is a spider beetle, a member of the family Ptinidae; there are about 50 species in the U.S., mostly in the Southwest. But wait, a spider beetle? Does that compute? Spiders, you’ll remember, aren’t insects. There are all sorts of differences, but, most obviously, insects have six legs, and spiders and other arachnids eight. So this six-legged creature is very much an insect, but its arachnid-like oval body — to me it’s more reminiscent of a tick than a spider — gives it its common name. Note those long, segmented antennae; how very like a beetle.
I identified this by opening up to the appropriate page of the Peterson Field Guide to Beetles by pure luck. The species in this family are common indoors, where they like to eat practically everything, and less commonly found outdoors, where they hang out in mammal and bird nests.
So, my apartment is basically a mammal nest. But I knew that.
Backyard and Beyond 
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