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Conglomerate of Harvestmen

Order Opiliones

Description:

Conglomerate of Harvestmen on the side of an electrical pole (cement). If you blow on them, they all run off in different directions. Very funny. Some of the spiders had red mites attached to them.

Habitat:

Overgrown area along the side of a street, semi-urban area on the outskirts of the city, 2,200 meters.

Notes:

Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an Order of Arachnids commonly known as Harvestmen. As of December 2011, over 6,500 species of harvestmen have been discovered worldwide, although the real number of extant species may exceed 10,000. The Order Opiliones includes four suborders: Cyphophthalmi, Eupnoi, Dyspnoi, and Laniatores. Well-preserved fossils have been found in the 400-million-year-old Rhynie cherts of Scotland, which look surprisingly modern, indicating that the basic structure of the harvestmen has not changed much since then. Phylogenetic position is disputed: their closest relatives may be the mites (Acari) or the Novogenuata (the Scorpiones, Pseudoscorpiones and Solifugae). Although they belong to the class Arachnida, harvestmen are in the order Opiliones; therefore they are not spiders, which are members of the order Araneae. From Wikipedia.

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3 Comments

LeanneGardner
LeanneGardner 11 years ago

Ha! I have no idea! :)

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 11 years ago

Yes it does look like art, doesn't it. How do they know whose leg is who's?

LeanneGardner
LeanneGardner 11 years ago

Wow! It looks like a piece of art Lauren :)

LaurenZarate
Spotted by
LaurenZarate

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

Spotted on Dec 11, 2012
Submitted on Dec 12, 2012

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