Harvestman?

Paul Iddon

This is I think a "Harvestman" - not a true spider cos it has no separate head and body.

Found creeping through the grass on my walk this afternoon by the river.







Paul.

Lord Vetinari

Lovely capture Paul- yes it's a harvestman
Brian V.

Paul Iddon

Thanks Brian.

Thought it was.


Paul.

MichelleL

Paul Iddon wrote:

This is I think a "Harvestman" - not a true spider cos it has no separate head and body.

Found creeping through the grass on my walk this afternoon by the river.

Paul.

Hey Paul

Nice picture.

According to my book on Wildlife in the greater Brisbane area it says about Spiders: "Although their bodies can be very different, all arachnids have four pairs of legs, a pair of palps and a pair of chelicerae."

So, just because the Harvestmen has a different body doesn't mean it's not a "true" spider.

The book I've got also makes this interesting point about Harvestmen: "they are curious arachnids that often have gossamer legs, beautiful sculpturing and alien features, such as periscope-like eyes and palps covered with spines. They hide during the day, but at night they rove the ground in search of prey."

Again, nice picture of this shy Arachnid.

Paul Iddon

Nice research Michelle.

Seems these spiders are all across the globe!


Paul.

Robinivich

Had a look at the wikipedia article on arachnids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnid which I've found fascinating, according to that article (standard wikipedia disclaimers apply) it seems as if the harvestmen are closer in descent to the scorpions/sun spiders than to what one might call "true spiders."

I think the tricky thing with this kind of description (true spider) is it tries to be black and white, which is really difficult in something like description of species. Sure I'm pretty different from my dog, but in broad biological terms it's a minor and recent distinction, and I'd bet the dog and I are much more closely related than most arachnids are to one another

In any case, cool find! From what I understand, these might be pretty cool creatures to follow around from time to time (not that there's any other kind!)

MichelleL

Paul Iddon wrote:

Nice research Michelle.

Seems these spiders are all across the globe!


Paul.

I was excited to read that we have jumping spiders here - I'm on the look out for these little ones to try and capture their picture.

Paul Iddon

MichelleL wrote:

I was excited to read that we have jumping spiders here - I'm on the look out for these little ones to try and capture their picture.

There are some examples on DG, have a look in this forum for some real eye openers!

Paul.

MichelleL

Paul Iddon wrote:

There are some examples on DG, have a look in this forum for some real eye openers!

Paul.

Oh I know - that is what has inspired me to try and find these little guys. I won't be able to get the 3:1 that those with the MPE can but still, they will look great at 1:1

MichelleL