Harvestman

Description:

Opiliones are known for their exceptionally long legs relative to their body size; however. As in the Araneae, the body in the Opiliones has two tagmata, the anterior cephalothorax or prosoma, 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. Other differences are that Opiliones have no venom glands in their chelicerae. They also have no silk glands and therefore they do not build webs. In some highly derived species the first five abdominal segments are fused into a dorsal shield called the scutum, which in most such species is fused with the carapace. Some such Opiliones only have this shield in the males. In some species the two posterior abdominal segments are reduced. Some of them divided medially on the surface to form two plates beside each other. The second pair of legs are longer than the others and they function as antennae or feelers. In short-legged species this may not be obvious.

Habitat:

Worldwide, except deserts and arctic regions

Notes:

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 (the same myth applies to Pholcus phalangioides and the cranefly, which are both also called a 'daddy longlegs').[5] This is untrue on several counts. None of the known species of harvestmen have venom glands; their chelicerae are not hollowed fangs but grasping claws that are typically very small and definitely not strong enough to break human skin.