does anyone know any good books about opiliones? it's been a while since i actually sat down and read a book, and i figured reading about my favorite arachnids would be a good place to start.

i did some research myself before posting this, but the only book i could find was Harvestmen: The Biology of Opiliones by Ricardo Pinto-da-Rocha, Glauco Machado, and Gonzalo Giribet. and i would absolutely LOVE to read this, but i really don't want to spend $200+ on a physical copy.

so i ask you all: do you know of any good books that focus on or have a section about opiliones? even books with a broader focus that mention them briefly will do. thank you for reading.

Sitting on a wall in Germany.

I'm trying to get to know the local species enough to classify them as best I can.

I think harvestmen are sick and I honestly kind of think he’s a cutie but I’m also terrified of bugs and had to relocate to my couch for the night because I got spooked.

Is there anything I can use to make him disinterested in my chair or desk or bed?

He’s been nice so far and I’m fully aware that he is incapable of really doing anything to me besides showing up from cracks and crawling around but I still am nervous around him.

(Edit: I MIXED UP HIS NAME ITS ACTUALLY LARRY!!!)

It was bigger than my hand!

Had to be relocated outside TWICE while I was at work and decided actually my arm was so fun to climb up the second time. First time he went much easier. Anyway, this is my baby and I love him and I hope you all enjoy him.

he so cute!

Found in the wild

Found a new guy today ☺️

Video I took last summer at Oregon Caves National Monument of their endemic harvestman species eating its own exoskeleton after completing a shed.

Poor little guy. Found last week near the entrance of the cave at Oregon Caves National Monument.

Huge fella at my job. Super clumsy and fell over his own damn feet many times.

I will preface this by saying I am scared of anything creepy-crawly related, and when I first saw my guy (about two weeks ago) I was terrified of it.

I knew that harvestmen ate other spiders, so I decided to keep him around. He always sat in the corner of my room above my door. I named him "cutie" to try and reduce my fear response everytime I saw him. I said goodmorning to him everytime I left my room.

Cutie ate every couple of days, often dragging prey up to his corner. One time I saw him battling it out with a spider (gnarly looking thing) and I realized how cool harvestmen are. He won the battle and took out the spider.

This morning he dissappeared. I've looked everywhere and I can't find him. I honestly can't believe I have become attached to that little guy. :( My question is: is it more likely that he couldn't find any bugs and moved to another part of my house? Or was he killed by a bug/spider? My dad says harvestment are fragile and can be eaten by other bugs. I live in Ontario so I'm not too sure what could have gotten him.

Looks a little different from the other images I see online, so I could be wrong.

Hi

Today I have collected a specimen that I cannot find an ID for. If anyone knows something similar please let me know.

Sadly the prosoma has been crushed during collection so eyes aren't visible.

Look at it closely. Legs are full of white ish spikes and there are some dorsal plates on the opisthosona visible. The moth region is covered with a small hood similar to what I've seen in Trogulidae.

Anyone got ideas? It's either a harvestman (which I'm starting to think it is) or a mite. It's not a tick, don't even suggest that. There is no way it is given it's mouthparts.

Okay, so for some background information, I was going to take a shower and fetch my hairbrush when I noticed something on top of it; I realised it looked like a baby harvestman, but looking closely, it had pale green which resembled mold. I looked and the only green harvesmen were bright green, not moldy looking.

This is up close with the flashlight, and while I know harvestmens eyesight is only restricted to light, this one took a very weird approach when I put a flashlight in its face. Usually, it would just stand still. Maybe move a bit. But this one was trying to actually run from the flashlight, and looking closer it looked like it either A. Wasn’t a harvestman or B. It had a parasite on its back.

I was leaning towards B, but it isn’t like any parasite I have ever seen— I will post a crappy diagram for what it looked like on the second slide, but it had eyes on the actual top of its head with hair sticking out. When my brother came in to ask about it, he looked closely and I asked him if he thought it looked like it was moving weird.

He thought what I did and said “It looks like it’s moving it’s legs separately, not in unison.

One of the back legs were fully bent up and the other extended, looked like it was trying to move in unison but couldn’t?? So the result of it was the thing literally dragging itself.

I js wanna know how to differentiate male and female, ive been seeing many harvestmen and I wanna know how

Had a "good morning" from this little fella today. Wondering why it was "chewing" its legs? It's also safe, I took it out to the lawn outside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMKPOYdSp_U

So I’m sitting at my workbench and a harvestman is walking around checking things out on my workbench. I put my hand on the workbench near its path and eventually it touches my hand and as soon as it touches, it bolts off across the workbench quickly. Can it detect my body temperature or is there something else particular that it is sensing? … any ideas?

I made this terrarium a while back, but after a two day break, one of my terrarium enclosures only had one plant that died, and my harvestman enclosure was still doing fine, but this one completely died out. Would it be nice to fit my harvestman into this enclosure or is it too Small or not long enough keep in mind that I can remove basically all the dirt and rubble in this so just look at the enclosure itself

The source of protein I give them is dog food, and I also give them fruits and vegetables, and I replaced their food in the same schedule. I replaced my other terrarium food, but it just doesn’t look like they’re eating with my other terrariums like my Millipede or I just isopods. You can see marks and holes and proof that they’ve eaten but these ones I just feel like I’m seeing nothing I even soaked the dog food and water to soften it up and I just never saw progress. Are they eating and they’re just taking small bites or is there something I’m missing? Do I need a softer source of protein?