Harvestman

The harvestman in this picture is about five inches long from the tip of one leg across the middle to the tip of another. Good thing it is not a spider, but just a harmless member of the order Opiliones, a group often mistaken for spiders. You might know the harvestman as a daddy long legs or a harvester or a variety of other common names. At the end of this long harvest themed Thanksgiving holiday weekend I remembered having heard that some people think the names harvestman and harvester originated from their abundance in agricultural areas at harvest time. This one seemed to be living up to that legend by posing on a leaf of a blueberry bush in a farmer's field. Click to enlarge.

Harvestman

I passed this lovely long legged creature while I was walking in Boundary Creek Park in Moorestown, New Jersey. Click on the photo to enlarge it. Years ago I would have thought it was a tremendously big spider; it was about 4 or 5 inches from leg tip to leg tip. But it's not a spider. It is a member of the large arachnid order Opiliones, usually called by the common names of harvestman or harvester, daddy-longlegs or granddaddy-longlegs. The opilionids don't spin silk and don't make webs. They don't make venom. Their bodies are not divided into 2 segments with a "waist" like spiders. Many but not all of the thousands of described species of harvestmen have these extremely long slender legs. I always find them like this, sitting motionless upon leaves, possibly waiting for unsuspecting prey like an aphid, mite, caterpillar, or whatnot to stroll past, but maybe just taking in the summer day.