A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
opilione (sp)
Opiliones are known for their exceptionally long legs relative to their body size; however some species are short-legged. As in the Araneae, the body in the Opiliones has two tagmata, the anterior cephalothorax orprosoma, and the posterior ten-segmented abdomen or opisthosoma. The most obvious difference between harvestmen and spiders is that in harvestmen the connection between the cephalothorax and abdomen is broad, so that the body appears to be a single oval structure.
spotted in PNPGerês,in Leonte,meadle altitude,900,more or less,these guys look very primitive,they where in a rooten log in the floor,among others bugs.some of them have a red parasite in the back
Spotted on Aug 21, 2012
Submitted on Aug 26, 2012
9 Comments
:)
The mites and the Harvestman are cousins!
Thanks Martin and Emma for your interest and your super comments.
Martin i'll never dream that this one was a harvestman,thanks for the info's,i'am going to id him as a opilione sp.
Emma my wife is fascinated with these tiny parasites that apears in some insects and in the slugs and snail's to,incredible nasty creatures :) but they have their rool in life to,the most important one,in earth the most part of life is composed by micro organisms,more than 80% of the total living mass is micro :)
The name comes from them (the long legged ones) being common in the fields and when farmers harvest their wheat crops they associated these creatures.
Yes mites are closely related and I often feel amused when I see them on the backs of their 'cousins'.
according to the wikipedia,: their closest relatives may be the mites (Acari) or the Novogenuata (the Scorpiones, Pseudoscorpiones and Solifugae).
They look rather big, compared to the ones i find indoors.Fascinating to see the mites. Must be uncomfortable for the harvestman though!! Wonder how it got its name!
Thank you for the link and info MartinL . Always enriching to hear from you!
This is a harvestman. (opiliones) They are arachnids with one body segment, rather than two as spiders have. This is a short legged harvestman like this one http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/120... The best known ones have very long legs and red parasitic mites are commonly found on these too. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/690...
interesting body shape for a spider!