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Sticker of Red harvestman
Bug card No. 1116 of 1,500

Red harvestman

Opilio canestrinii
Eats: A bit of everythingScorpions, ticks and friendsHouses and farms8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The red harvestman is a small, round-bodied harvestman with eight long, thin legs. Males are reddish brown, and females are paler with a dark saddle pattern on their back. You often see it sitting on the walls of houses.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. It is an arachnid with eight legs, a cousin of the spiders.
Lives in
Europe, first from Italy, now spread through central Europe, often on house walls
Length
6 to 8 mm (0.24 to 0.31 in)
Top speed
about 1.2 km/h (0.75 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It has no venom and no fangs that could hurt you.
What does it eat?
Like other harvestmen, it eats small insects and also bits of dead things and plants.
For real!Photo of Red harvestman
Picture by Jörg Hempel. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Red harvestman about 8 mm long (0.31 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 fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 3 secondsmoves 42 times its own body length every second

How big is Red harvestman compared to YOU?

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

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Females are a bit bigger than males, up to 8 millimetres long without the legs.

2

The female's legs have light and dark rings, like little stripy socks.

3

It came from Italy and since the late 1970s has spread all over central Europe, pushing out a similar harvestman.

you asked

Most asked questions about Red harvestman

?Is the red harvestman a spider?

No. It has eight legs like a spider, but harvestmen are a different group. Their body is one round piece, and they make no silk.

?Is the red harvestman dangerous?

No. It has no venom and is harmless to people.

?When can you see red harvestmen?

Grown-ups can be found from June to December.

Myth buster

Myth: Daddy longlegs are super venomous, but their fangs are too small to bite people.

Truth: That is not true for harvestmen. They have no venom at all and are completely harmless.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Opilio canestrinii
Named by
Thorell, 1876
Group
Scorpions, ticks and friends
Family
Phalangiidae
Classification
Arachnida > Opiliones > Phalangiidae
Lives on
Europe
Also known as
Canestrini's harvestman

Where the facts come from

  1. Opilio canestrinii (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 Jörg Hempel. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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