Harvestmen
Profile, Helper Mouth Parts
Ellura
Harvestmen
Back
 
                      
Harvestmen (Megalopsalis sp)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Spiders, Scorpions, Mites & Ticks (Arachnida)
Order: Harvestmens (Opiliones)
Family: Harvestmen (Neopilionidae)
Species: Harvestmen (Megalopsalis sp)
This Photo:     Profile, Feeding
Other names: Daddy-long-legs, Daddy Long Legs, Daddy Longlegs or Daddy Long-legs

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
The Daddy Long-legs name is miss-leading in Australia as we also have Daddy Long-legs spiders, which look very similar, but are quite different.
The visible difference between spiders & harvestmen is that harvestmen appear to have one single whole body. Spiders have an obvious distinction between the back (abdomen) & front (thorax). Harvestmen have no spinerets nor venom, but these differences are not visible.
The species we have at Ellura looks like it has 12 legs! But it has 8 legs, like a spider, and 2 pairs of mouth parts. Two very long ones look like knees out the front (which are chelicerae), then two smaller helper feeders to their side (which would be palps). The long ones are pointed, while the side ones are rounded & hairy.
Shahan Derkarabetian on iNaturalist said "They are always very cool to find. In this family the males have the extremely long chelicerae."

Copyright © 2014-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 30-Jul-2014
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.