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Comments & ID Thoughts
Found this in a tomato planter outside my house. I live in the woods
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Jul 17, 2019
- Photographed: Jul 17, 2019
- Spider: Unidentified
- Location: Richmond , Rhode Island, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Low foliage (shrubs, herbs, garden, excluding flowers),High foliage (includes trees and tree trunks),Forest
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes:
Looks like a Harvestman; Harvestmen are arachnids, but not spiders.
https://jeb.biologists.org/content/222/3/jeb192187 This is a recent article about why Harvestmen, Opilione arachnids, have great climbing ability on smooth surfaces. They have the greatest ability, of arthropods, to curl their feet upwards. I was trying to find out what the posture of the one in the photo is for. Was it alive when the photo was taken?
The creature is moulting, which explains the odd-looking posture.
Oh, the ‘I should’ve wondered why it has 16 legs’ thing. That made for a great photo! I’ve obviously never seen an Opilione half-way through molting before.