Opiliones

Harvestman

Order Opiliones Back <------

These are not real spiders, but resembles the spiders very much because they also have eight, sometimes very long, legs. They belong to the class Arachnida like the spiders, ticks and mites, scorpions and pseudoscorpiones. 3500 known species are known. 27 are found in NW-Europe. This order can be divided in three families: Nemastomatidae, Phalangiidae and Trogulidae.

Opilione; one body and two eyes Spider; two body sections and eight eyes

Harvestmen have an oval shaped body. The front and back of the body is grown together in contrast to spiders where the front and back end is separated by a stalk (pedicel). They have two eyes in the middle of their head looking sideways. They are also known as "harvestmen". Most of the harvestmen have long legs, but not all. Harvestman do not have booklungs but breath through trachea only.

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Opiliones

They should not be confused with the "daddy longlegs" (Pholcidae).

Opiliones do not possess poison glands but has instead glands that produce a stinky odor. They also have no silk glands or spinners. Harvestmen eat everything (omnivorous). They catch small insects or eat the decays of any dead animal, bird dung and other facial material, all kind of plant material and fungi. They are normally active during the night. Copulation is, in contrast to the spiders directly, directly with a penis. There is no foreplay and the copulation is no longer than a few minutes and may be repeated several times.

Family Phalangiidae

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Opiliones

Dicranopalpus ramosus Dicranopalpus ramosus

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Opiliones

Leiobunum rotundum often crawl together forming a bunch of legs and bodies.

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Opiliones

Leiobunum rotundum female

Leiobunum rotundum male

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Opiliones

Leiobunum rotundum female

Leiobunum rotundum male

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Opiliones

Mitopus morio Mitopus morio with mite (red dot) on his leg

Unknown Odiellus spinosus

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Opiliones

Odiellus ZZ333 (Jura, France)

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Opiliones

Opilio ravanea Opilio ravanea

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Opiliones

Opilio saxatilis in a stolen web? A harvestman does not make webs. This one seems happy in it.

Opilio saxatilis

Opilio saxatilis

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Opiliones

Paroligolophus agrestis

Paroligolophus agrestis

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Opiliones

Phalangium opilio Phalangium opilio

With thanks to Luc Vanhercke.

Ed Nieuwenhuys, 15 march 2007

April 24, 1999

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