Another Leggy Model ...

[Pudding4brains]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

I happy to learn pudding. So the two are shaped different?

Yes, I only learned that a few weeks ago too - especially with these Leiobunum it's quite extreme. In this image (from this site) you'll see male and female side by side (both somehow fairly young/fresh it seems?)

opilliones not a strong point of mine. Any other differences between the two?

Me neither ... got to go now. Meaning Male/Female? Or the species discussed?
Arp

[Pudding4brains]

As Jezlee asked for Phalangium opilio a few times and Dogghound was interested in differences I cooked up this:


Females left, males right. Top to bottom: Phalangium opilio, Opilio canestrinii, Leiobunum rotundum.

Note the huge chelicerae on the P. opilio male and the extreme difference in body shape and colour between male and female L. rotundum. O. canestrinii is quite variable in colour, both of the body and legs, but typically has some reddish hues, quite light orangy trochanter (where the legs meet the body) and darkish legs (although also frequently with lighter somewhat banded legs).

Useful details (for ID) to get on your photos would be the ocularium (the eyes-hill - colour and thorns/teeth) and the chelicerae/pedipalps and of course a jizz shot showing the total length of the legs. Of the species depicted here Leiobunum has the longest legs, canestrinii not much shorter and Phalangium the shortest, but still fairly long (many species have shorter legs still). Bodyshape can vary quite drastically depending on how well-fed the animal is and/or how "packed with eggs". Compare this P. opilio girly with the one top left in the other picture:


All the is to be "consumed" in the knowledge that he who writes it knows very little about Harvestmen and can only ID a handful of species on a lucky day ... (use with caution!)

Cheers
Arp

P.S. @No.9 Spider: The site I linked previously (this one) has some penis-shots too (also used frequently for ID). Bizarre creatures

[Venger]

Your last link takes you to a below shot of a female spider - so something went wrong with that link...
It's a very good site, I like it, very useful for ID'ing when used with key guides (I'm sure theres a link to a key guide on that site somewhere)

[jezlee]

Many thanks for your post, P4B ... most enlightening! I think I am going to have to keep a look out for Harvestmen this year and see if I can get some more pics for identification species ...

[Pudding4brains]

Originally Posted by Venger

Your last link takes you to a below shot of a female spider - so something went wrong with that link...

Yes, my bad, the site was unresponsive yesterday, so I didn't check the link (and didn't notice I made a dumb mistake). Should have been linking to Opilio parietinus and was aiming for this hardcore shot

@Venger: I don't do a lot with Arachnida yet, so I haven't turned the site upside down, I only go there to find images for comparison (through the genus selection top left) ... the only "key" I'm aware of is on this site??

[Venger]

Yup thats the one, I'm pretty sure most of the photos link to a map (Germany) but I'm sure some of the link to that key guide site as well.