Harvestmen Harvesting
Like their relatives – spiders, mites, ticks and scorpions – Daddy Longlegs, or Harvestmen, have eight legs (the second, longer, pair of legs are used as antennae). Of all the arachnids, spiders resemble Harvestmen most closely. However, there are distinct differences between the two orders. Unlike spiders, the two main body sections of Harvestmen are nearly joined and appear as one structure. Harvestmen have no spinnerets nor do they possess poison glands. They also do not have the enzymes spiders have that are capable of breaking down the insides of their prey into liquid. Harvestmen ingest small particles, breaking them down with their chelicerae, or mouthparts, which resemble miniature, toothed lobster claws. One would surmise from this photograph that the legs of flies must lack the nutrition worthy of mastication.
Harvestmen
Harvestmen (daddy longlegs) and spiders are closely related and share many characteristics, but they also have significant differences. One such difference is that Harvestmen do not possess venom glands, nor the digestive enzymes capable of breaking down the insides of prey into a liquid. (Some species of Harvestmen are omnivores, eating both plant and animal matter, others are scavengers.) Unlike fellow arachnids (spiders, ticks, scorpions and mites) that drink their food, Harvestmen ingest small particles, breaking them down with their chelicerae, or mouthparts, which resemble miniature, toothed lobster claws. In this photograph, the Harvestman is holding a deer fly with its pedipalps, appendages used to grasp food as well as their mates. Its chelicerae are too small to discern, but they do the job — in the space of about ten minutes, this Harvestman consumed an entire deer fly, bit by bit.
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