Harvestman photo (courtesy Peter Hager CC0 Public Domain)

Just because something has 8 legs and is running around your house or garden, it doesn’t mean that you are necessarily looking at a spider!

Harvestmen are part of the order known as Opiliones, a sister order to the spiders (Araneae) within the class Arachnida. Unlike spiders, harvestmen have a turret on their had (an ocularium) with a single pair of eyes. They also don’t have venom glands or build webs. It’s their long legs that give them away though!

There are 30 species of Harvestmen in Britain and Ireland and they’re not too difficult to identify (for an invertebrate group). The Harvestmen Identikit is an online interactive guide to help identify species or learn about the features that can be used to separate the different taxa in the field.

Explore the Harvestmen Identikit here: https://harvestmen.fscbiodiversity.uk/

View the virtual ‘How to’ guide on our YouTube channel: