Weird little harvestmen

[Wade Harrell]

The harvestmen (common name for the order Opiliones) are an arachnid order that is largely overlooked by hobbyists. Most people are familliar with the family Phalangiidae, or the "daddylonglegs".

These guys are from a different family. Not sure which, but they seem simmilar to Vonones ornata as pictured in "Spiders and Their Kin" which would put it in Cosmetidae if those names are still current.

They were collected in King William county Virginia, under a rotten board. They are a bit bigger than an inch in legspan.

I'm currently keeping three of them in a large plastic deli container with a lot of natural leaf litter and am offering springtails for food. Some harvestmen will feed on fungus as well, so I may offer some bits of mushroom as well.

I don't know why, but I really like the little things. These picture were taken by LHP.

Wade

[LHP]

offering springtails for food

hmmm. Maybe that explains something. I forgot to tell you when I was taking pictures of them outdoors the other day, there were some tiny fruit flies (I guess, I wasn't paying too much attention to them) hanging out in the area. Any time one would walk along the leaves and get near the havestmen, they would freak out and do some quick jerking movements with their legs and move towards the fly. Neato.


Lindsey

[Steve-o]

GREAT photos!!!! Those are very interesting. Is 1" full size? I dont know anything about harvestmen...

[Kari McWest]

Hey guys, great shots!
Steve, body length is probably (differs with species) 10 mm or so. Most are all in that size range, 1" is leg span, as Wade stated. I am very familiar with Vonones sayi, family Cosmetidae, which is quite common in East Texas and I think the southeast in general. I have also seen Dalquestia formosa (gorgeous!) in central Texas and another species, probably undescribed, in Tombstone, AZ, in the Dragoon Mtns., but I'm sure it wasn't Cosmetidae.

The guru of harvestmen in the US is James Cokendolpher in Lubbock. I'll contact him to see if he can take a look and ID these for us.

Steve if you like I can have Tom Anton, formerly of FMNH and collects stuff in IL (he's in Chicago), contact you about scorpions and things in IL.

[Wade Harrell]

Hey Kari-

That's great! I didn't even think there was a chance of getting a positive ID, I just wanted to post pictures because I thought they were so nifty and because Lindsey managed to get such good shot of them.

Steve-O-

1" for these, yes, but of course many of the daddylonglegs (Palangiidae) can get 4" or more in legspan, although the body size is no bigger than a shelled peanut.

Lindsey-

I'm just guessing they eat springtails, I'm assuming they want really tiny things. I've fed daddylonglegs crushed crickets before, and they are supposed to be a great natural control for for pest aphids and mites on plants. I'm considering introducing them to my millipede tanks to help control mites etc.

Wade

[Eric Reynolds]

These are really cool!

I've never kept them in captivity, but used to find them on occassion during my days at UM, while I was out bug hunting.

I found quite a few of these in Prince William county, Maryland... never came across any on the Eastern Shore, though I wasn't really looking.

Eric