The Urban Pantheist

First, right up against the back of the house next to our compost, the magic guardian of the compost. Only the bravest and cleverest of mice may get by the guardian. This was the third time I saw it in the course of the day, but the only halfway decent photo. If you follow Alexis on social media you may have seen me holding it--it never tried to bite, it just thoroughly coated me with its stink gland.

( Read more... )

All these small things were photographed on the grounds of Contentment Cottage. These are things that I chose not to include in the 100 species project, either by caprice or ignorance.

( Read more... )

This striped harvestman (or "daddy long-legs," Leiobunum vittatum) was on the front wall of the house, missing two of its legs.

I dislike the word "harvestman," but I fear I must use it in place of "daddy long-legs," the name I called this animal as a child, to avoid confusing it with the crane fly or the cellar spider, which also go by that name. The harvestman is a creature of mystery to laypeople. As recently as last week I had to dispel the bunkum that the daddy long-legs is the most venomous spider. First, it's not a spider at all, it's more of a gigantic mite with obscenely extended appendages. Second, it has no venom glands and no fangs. Harvestmen are predatory on smaller creatures, but also feed on detritus and carrion, being unusual among arachnids for tearing up and swallowing solid food particles. Spiders gooify the insides of their prey, sucking down liquid nourishment.

The striped harvestman is the most common and conspicuous one in North America, with a distinctive dark marking on a gray to pinkish orange body. The body darkens as the creature ages, and late season specimens' stripes disappear into the background color. Harvestmen can be handled quite safely--for the human--the harvestman usually ends up losing a few legs in the process.

This same species (represented by a nice reddish individual) was 365 urban species #329.

Urban species #329: Harvestman Leiobunum vittatum

It is astonishing, given how common and abundant these animals are, that so little is known about them, and worse, that they don't even have a good common name. "Daddy long-legs" is the name I grew up with, but in some places that common name refers to crane flies or cellar spiders (and their relatives). The scientific name for members of the harvestman order is "Opiliones," a word I don't even wish to learn to pronounce. Harvestmen are found in fields, yards, gardens, and parks, and alongside buildings. They are apparently omnivorous, hunting much smaller animals, and feeding on fungi and detritus. The well-circulated story that they possess powerful venom is grade A bunkum. Not only do they lack venom, they lack fangs altogether. While they have eight legs and look somewhat spidery, they differ from spiders in several important ways: no fangs, no venom, no silk glands. Their vision (which seems to be poor) and breathing apparatus are very different from those of spiders, and they also have all their body segments fused, instead of the two part arrangement that spiders have. Their long legs are their most obvious feature, thin stilts carrying an oval body around. Unlike insects, they have no antennae, so their second pair of legs--threadlike and longer than the others--acts as a set of feelers. Often a harvestman is found without all eight of its legs, as they sometimes break off when a predator attacks. Nerves in the jointed limbs cause them to twitch after breaking off, probably helping to distract the attacker. About 5000 species of opiliones have been named. Once again, my identification here is tentative: Leiobunum vittatum is a common North American species, with distinctive markings on its body. However, the European species L. rotundum looks very similar, and I see no reason why it shouldn't be in North America as well, especially in urban areas.



( closer )