Thursday 23 May 2013

Dicranopalpus ramosus (Simon, 1909)

So of the species so far, we've been sampling tropical (Zambian) and cold-temperate species (UK). Although by the limitations of my current lifestyle, that's all your likely to get for some time, today I'll throw in a species originally from Mediterranean climes - although it has recently become abundant in the southern counties of England...it's not as alarmist as it sounds, as wildlife in the UK is still catching up with the historical retreat of the ice, and part of the recent increase in the colonisation rate is down to the rise in global travel... Part of it...

Onwards...

Eukaryota
  Animalia
    Eumetazoa
      Bilateralia
        Nephrozoa
          Protostomia
            Ecdysozoa
              Arthropoda
                Chelicerata
                  Arachnida
                    Dromopoda
                      Opiliones
                        Eupnoi
                          Phalangioidea
                            Phalangiidae
                              Dicranopalpinae

Dicranopalpus ramosus
(Simon, 1909)

Dicranopalpus ramosus, Bosham, West Sussex, UK
 As a harvestman (Opiliones - a relatively small order not-too-distantly related to scorpions, and a little less closely related to spiders and mites) the chances of it having a species specific common name are... low. 

Despite being only only very distantly related to spiders, they suffer the same tragic fate as most of the various Arachnid orders that aren't scorpions or ticks, and are constantly misidentified and mislabelled as spiders. 

Key differences include:

Diet: Spiders are all predatory. Harvestmen are generally omnivorous, generally feeding as much on fungi as they do on other invertebrates, although specialists do exist... 

Venom: Spiders have it. Their near-universal incapacity to handle solid foods means that they need to at the very least be able to liquify their food, and quite often stop it wriggling while the liquifying sets in. Harvestmen eat solids, which means venom is strictly optional. DESPITE POSSESSING VENOM, MOST SPIDERS ARE HARMLESS TO ORGANISMS TOO LARGE TO BE PREY DUE TO RELATIVELY MINUTE AMOUNTS OF VENOM AND - SOMETIMES MORE IMPORTANTLY - VENOM DELIVERY SYSTEMS WHICH ARE INAPPROPRIATE FOR PUNCTURING THICK SKINS. 

Body: Spiders have two body segments - a cephalothorax (front bit) and an abdomen (back bit), with a narrow connection between the two. Harvestmen have just the one, usually more-or-less ovoid
Eyes: Spiders have a basic eight-eye arrangement, with two rows of four eyes across the front of the cephalothorax, although various species have six, two or even no eyes. The basic eye arrangement of for harvestmen is just two, on top of the body.


There are a fair few other differences, but those should be enough to get you started. 


That's all, folks. 

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