Subject: Funky Bug
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada United States
April 6, 2013 4:05 am
Hey, So my buddy found this bug on a wall at night while jogging in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 5, 2013. He said it was about 3-4” in diameter from leg to leg. A friend of HIS claims it’s a Harvestman Spider. While I don’t agree (it has similar characteristics, but is different enough to convince me it’s some sort of beetle. Especially since it only has 6 legs), I also don’t have a better answer. Perhaps you can resolve this disagreement?
Signature: Alcanoya

Harvestman

Hi Alcanoya,
We agree with your buddy that this is a Harvestman in the order Opiliones, but we were not successful finding a match on BugGuide.

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Subject: Weird spider or moth?
Location: Basingstoke [England]
February 15, 2013 10:43 am
Hi – I found this bug outside a friend’s house in Basingstoke, it was around a year ago but I can’t remember exactly what time of year. It was just outside the front door on a piece of wood.
Signature: Spidey

Harvestman

Dear Spidey,
This is not a spider.  It is a Harvestman, another group of Arachnids in the order Opiliones.  We believe it is a nonnative species, Dicranopalpus ramosus, and we first posted a photo to our site in 2008.  

Ooh wow, thankyou very much for replying

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Subject: Spider or Scorpion ID
Location: Lower South Coast of South Africa
February 12, 2013 1:36 am
Hi,
We have a ton of these little critters down by our compost heap, their body’s are about 8mm long, legs are very long and i have no clue whats coming out of its head, thats what is making think it might be a scorpion.
Signature: Mike

Harvestmen

Hi Mike,
These are neither spiders nor scorpions, though they are classified together in the class Arachnids.  They are Harvestmen in the order Opiliones and they lack venom and feed on dead and dying creatures.  See BugGuide for an explanation of North American Opiliones which includes this statement:  “In some cases, in dry climates, they gather in large numbers during the day, probably to avoid dessication, and wander about in search of food after the sun goes down.”  Structurally, your species seems similar to this New Zealand species of Harvestman we recently posted.  The structures you mention appear to be the chelicerae or jaws. 

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for the response, so it turns out these big guys are happy in South Africa as well. Awesome, makes a nice change from the Widow and Baboon spiders we have found in the garden before.
Cheers,
Mike

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Subject: Spider with Fangs??
Location: New Zealand
January 27, 2013 5:07 pm
My friends and i spotted this scary looking spider on a tree whilst we were cycling round Lake Matheson on New Zealands south island. it seemed to have ’fangs’ and two long antenna things protruding from its head.
Any information would be grrrreat! thanks!
Signature: Matthew Toothill

Harvestman

Dear Matthew,
Thank you so much for submitting these photos of an interesting Harvestman or Daddy-Long-Legs.  Like Spiders, Harvestmen are Arachnids, but they are classified in the order Opiliones.  While spiders are predators, Opiliones are generally thought of as scavengers and they do not have venom.  Your individual has some unusual traits including the vertical appendages near the head.  We found an image of an unidentified species listed as a “forest species from Kaimanawa” on the Landcare Research of New Zealand website.  We then discovered a SciBlogs site called The Atavism that has some marvelous photos of what appears to be the same species.  It is identified as Pantopsalis albipalpis with the identification credit going to Christopher Taylor.  The Atavism supplies this information:  “Ordinarily an animal that appears to have crawled out of the pages of The War of the Worlds would be more than enough for a post here, but those spindly legs are as nothing when you compare them to the crane-like appendages growing from his head.  Amazingly, those are his jaws, or at least his chelicerae. Arachnids have two sets of limbs associated with their heads, the pedipalps (which spiders use almost like legs, and, in males to deliver sperm if you can imagine such a dual-purpose organ) and the chelicerae which are used to grasp prey and direct it toward the mouth (arachnids don’t have chewing mouth-parts like many other arthropods).
Females from Pantopsalis and the related genus Megalopsalis have more or less normal chelicerae which point downwards, let their owners shuffle food towards their mouth and do very little else. As you can see, males are built a little differently. In fact, those massive hinged jaws are so different than the female form that males and females have frequently been mistaken for different species. Even within males, several species have two distinct forms; one with relatively low abd broad chelicerae and another with tall slender chompers.”  Christopher Taylor’s paper New Zealand harvestmen of the subfamily Megalopsalidinae (Opiliones: Monoscutidae) – the genus Pantopsalis can be found here on the New Zealand Government website tepapa.  We will attempt to contact Christopher Taylor to see if a species identification is possible based on your photos.  The species name cited in the SciBlogs posting, P. albipalpis, alludes to the color white on the palps, if our Latin is correct, yet those images do not show white.  Your image does show an individual with white chelicerae.

Harvestman

Christopher Taylor provides some input
Hi Daniel,
Yes, this is the correct e-mail address. Thanks for contacting me. As
regards the animal in the photo, I suspect that it may be _Forsteropsalis_
rather than _Pantopsalis_, but it’s difficult to be sure. The two genera are
closely related and confidently distinguishing them often requires looking
at small features that are difficult to see in photographs. _Forsteropsalis_
species can be larger and more robust than _Pantopsalis_, but not always. I
can’t identify the species, sorry. Coming from that part of the South
Island, it could quite possibly be one that hasn’t yet been described.
Cheers,
Christopher Taylor

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Subject: I haven’t seen anything like this
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
November 15, 2012 8:50 am
Hello. This ”thing” has been living on my outside fence for a few months. I am baffled to what it is.
Signature: Emma Venvell

Harvestman

Hi Emma,
This is a Harvestman in the order Opiliones.  They are sometimes called Daddy-Long-Legs and they are often confused with spiders.  Unlike spiders, they do not have venom.  Your individual appears to be missing several legs.

Karl provides a species identification.
Hi Daniel:
It’s a very distinctive looking spider and I wonder if it isn’t another Dicranopalpus ramosus, like the one posted on WTB in 2008 by Mrs. Brind of Scotland.  If so, it is an exotic species that is well out of its natural range. Regards. Karl

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Subject: Howdy from south Texas!
Location: A very rural part of Bexar county in south central Texas
September 28, 2012 5:07 pm
Howdy, bugman! This is a cool site, my daughters and I just had a fun time browsing through….
By any chance do y’all recognize this bug? My 9 year old assures me she’s a spider because she has 8 legs. We just took the picture today, September 28th. This ”spider” has been hanging out on our bug-covered south Texas porch for about 2 days…no evidence of a web anywhere!
Thanks in advance, we’re going nuts trying to figure out what we’re looking at here!
Signature: South Texas dad

Harvestman

Dear South Texas dad,
Your daughter was astute to count the legs, but this is not a Spider.  It is a Harvestman or Daddy-Long-Legs in the order Opiliones.  Harvestmen and Spiders are both Arachnids.  The markings on this individual are quite distinctive, yet we could not find a match on BugGuide.  We do have a matching image of a Harvestman from Wimberly, Texas in our own archive, but we never identified the species.  Harvestmen lack venom and they are perfectly harmless.

Hi Daniel, thanks so much for writing us back with that amazing information! My daughter was thrilled to get your compliment, too Wimberly is just up the road from us so I imagine the picture in the link you sent us is probably a close relative of our harvestman..and we are all glad to know she’s harmless!
Thanks again

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Subject: what are these?
Location: garden in England
July 23, 2012 8:49 am
Hi I have seen loads and loads me these in my garden (England). Sometimes there’s one on its own other times there are groups. Just wanted to know what they are and to make sure they are not harmful to children, I’ve just never seen these before. Thanks.
Signature: Gemma

Harvestman

Hi Gemma,
This is a Harvestman in the Arachnid order Opiliones, and though it does not resemble the examples posted on the British Arachnological Society page, we are relatively certain of our identification.  The British Arachnological Society website states:  “Harvestmen will eat all kinds of food. Their omnivorous habits mean they will eat dead squashed slugs, bird droppings, jam, fruit and other plant remains, as well as live small invertebrates that they might catch. Generally they are nocturnal and can be found hiding under ivy, amongst grass stems, and other vegetation, under stones, bark and logs and inside cool damp buildings like sheds and outside toilets. Their common name derives from the fact that most are mature in autumn, at the time of harvesting.”  Harvestmen are harmless since they have no venom and do not bite.  We continued to research and we believe we have correctly identified your species as Homalenotus quadridentatus on the Opiliones UK website, but you must scroll down to see the image.

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