The familiar Phalangids, with small, almost spherical bodies and ridiculously long legs, belong to the genus Liobunum, L. rotundum being the common species. It is mature in autumn, when it may be seen scampering at a great pace among the herbage. It very readily parts with its limbs, and Pickard-Cambridge[[348]] relates that he once “saw one running with very fair speed and facility, having lost all but two legs, an anterior one on one side and a posterior one on the other.”
The Harvestmen so frequently seen on walls belong, as a rule, to the genus Phalangium. The best known example is Phalangium opilio (the P. cornutum of Linnaeus), the male of which possesses a remarkable development of the chelicerae.
The genus Oligolophus is well represented in this country, nine species having been recorded. They do not differ greatly from Phalangium, but have, as a rule, more massive bodies, and rather stout, though tolerably long legs. The largest English Harvestman, not rare under stones at Cambridge, is O. spinosus, whose body measures half an inch in length. O. agrestis is perhaps the commonest British Phalangid, and is abundant in woods and among herbage, and on low trees.
Fig. [236].—Oligolophus spinosus. (After Pickard-Cambridge.)
Platybunus has two, and Megabunus one British representative. They are of small size, and are to be sought for among heather or dead leaves in spring or early summer.
Fam. 2. Ischyropsalidae.—Coriaceous Phalangids, with eye-turret far removed from anterior border of cephalothorax. Maxillary lobes of second pair of legs rudimentary, in the form of tubercles. Legs similar, without “trochantin.” Multiarticulate tarsi. Tarsus of pedipalp without claw, and shorter than metatarsus. Pedipalps long and horizontal.
This family includes a small number of large or moderate-sized Phalangids, which are found occasionally in thick moss, or in caves, in mountainous regions of the south of Europe, and belong to the genera Ischyropsalis and Sabacon. There is a North American genus, Taracus.
Fam. 3. Nemastomatidae.—Coriaceous Phalangids, with cephalothorax fused with the first five segments of the abdomen, forming a scutum. Eye-turret near anterior border. No maxillary lobe on second coxae. Similar legs, without “trochantin.” Multiarticulate tarsi. Tarsus of pedipalp without claw, and shorter than metatarsus.
