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Project Noah Nature School
Opilione Sp.
A Harvestmen Spider seen hunting a fly at night. The spider literally sucked the fly, threw it and ran away. Opiliones are known for their exceptionally long legs relative to their body size; however, some species are short-legged. They have no silk glands and therefore they do not build webs. Harvestmen have a pair of prosomatic defensive scent glands (ozopores) that secrete a peculiar smelling fluid when disturbed. In some species the fluid contains noxious quinones.
Seen at Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary.
An urban legend claims that the harvestman is the most venomous animal in the world, but possesses fangs too short or a mouth too round and small to bite a human and therefore is not dangerous.
Spotted on Aug 31, 2013
Submitted on Sep 13, 2013
4 Comments
Wow thanks for sharing the information Maria :-)
Lovely spotting, Satyen. Although harvestmen are arthropods, they are not spiders. Spiders have two-part bodies and harvestmen only one.
Thanks Jemma!
awesome!