Discocyrtus species on UV
ISO400 | 8s | f/11 @ 34mm / Canon 450D, Canon 18-55 5.6 IS
The colors of this photo have not been altered, this is the result of the glowing caparace of a harvestmen under a ultraviolet flashlight. During the 8 seconds of exposure with the camera on a tripod it’s body remained motionless, while the entire movement of the second pair of legs acting as antennae got registered continuously.
Harvestmen are often mistaken as spiders, but despite having a similar overall shape (the general opinion, though I disagree), they belong to an entire different order, they are also arachnids but placed under Opiliones, which is the same taxonomic level of difference between a spider and a scorpion, for instance.
They are omnivorous, eating fruits, bird droppings, insects, meat, mollusks and who knows what more. To be able to go after such variety of foods they don’t rely on vision, instead they have sensorial hairs (sensilla trichodea) for “smell” on the second pair of legs, and use them as if they were antennae, slowly circling them both in the air trying to capture chemical particles hinting the direction where the source of smell is to be found, this is the same motion that got captured in the long exposure.
Adriano Kury from the UFRJ Arachnology Lab have put up a list of every harvestmen family with a representative picture for each, that illustrates well the diversity in these critters. The ones I encounter most easily in the rainforest habitats I shoot in are the Gonyleptidae, the usually triangular shaped armored ones, and are also possibly my favourites.
Promitobates ornatus
ISO400 | 1/200 | f/18 @ 55mm / Canon 450D, Canon 18-55 5.6 IS, Raynox DCR-250
