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Sticker of Common harvestman
Bug card No. 0328 of 1,500

Common harvestman

Phalangium opilio
Eats: A bit of everythingScorpions, ticks and friendsGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The common harvestman has a small round body and eight very long, thin legs. It looks like a spider, but it is not one. It uses its extra long second pair of legs like feelers, tapping around to explore the world in the dark.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. It is an arachnid with eight legs, a cousin of the spiders.
Lives in
Europe and Asia, and now also North America, North Africa and New Zealand, in meadows, gardens and fields
Length
3.5 to 9 mm (0.14 to 0.35 in)
the body only, without the legs
Top speed
about 1.2 km/h (0.75 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Completely harmless. It has no venom and cannot hurt you.
What does it eat?
It hunts small soft animals like aphids, caterpillars and beetle larvae. It also eats dead things it finds.
For real!Photo of Common harvestman
Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Common harvestman about 9 mm long (0.35 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailas long as 1.5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 3 secondsmoves 37 times its own body length every second

How big is Common harvestman compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is the most widespread harvestman in the world.

2

It is busy at night. Most of its walking, feeding and tapping happens after dark.

3

The tips of its legs can curl around twigs, so it can hold on while it climbs.

4

Males have little horns on their jaws.

5

A mother lays her eggs in clusters, sometimes several hundred of them.

you asked

Most asked questions about Common harvestman

?Is a harvestman a spider?

No. It has eight legs like a spider, but its body is one round piece, it has no venom and it does not spin webs.

?Can a daddy longlegs bite you?

No. The common harvestman has no venom and is harmless to people.

?What do harvestmen eat?

They eat small soft animals like aphids and caterpillars, and also dead things they find.

Myth buster

Myth: Daddy longlegs are the most venomous animals in the world, but their fangs are too small to bite.

Truth: No. Harvestmen have no venom at all, and they are not even spiders. They are completely harmless.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Phalangium opilio
Group
Scorpions, ticks and friends
Family
Phalangiidae
Classification
Arachnida > Opiliones > Phalangiidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Brown harvestman, Daddy longlegs

Where the facts come from

  1. Phalangium opilio (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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