Harvestmen

Opiliones-r-us! During my trips to Cappadocia and Smyrna (Izmir,) last week, I had the chance to go trekking and turn over lots of stones under the warm spring sun. During those trips, I kept running into these things, commonly known as "harvestmen," "daddy long legs," or "spiders" in English. Although they do look spidery, these creatures are Opiliones, relatives of spiders and scorpions. The truth is, they are not spiders, scorpions or anything else. Opiliones constitute an arachnid order entirely of their own.

On this picture, a nice harvestman possibly of the species Mitopus morio, from around Ürgüp, Cappadocia.

Here is another Mitopus, but this time from Smyrna, at the other end of Anatolia. Look at its body, which consists of just one, football-shaped segment. Two tiny eyes, much like those of a scorpion, stare back at us. Although they look all gangly and nasty, Opiliones are absolutely harmless to humans.

I found this dark, brown, unidentified Opilione just next to the Mitopus shown below. My first idea was that maybe it too was a Mitopus, but of the opposite sex. Maybe, this was the case. But maybe, these two belonged to different species. Without enough data, I could not tell.

By the way, did you know that male Opiliones are the only arachnids with dicks? Yep. Opiliones are also one of the rare Arachnid orders that can ingest solid food, rather than having to liquify it first. Talk about tough men!