The green harvestman!
This species appears to be well camouflaged in its natural habitat – high elevation tropical wet forest with an abundance of mosses and ferns at Las Brisas Nature Reserve, Límon province, Costa Rica. Luckily I snapped some photos of this species before preserving a few individuals in ethanol to examine later in the lab because, unfortunately, the gorgeous color faded quickly! Upon closer inspection our research team discovered that the harvestman does not produce the green pigment, but rather, the pigment is produced by epizoic cyanobacteria that lives on the dorsal scute of the harvestman. This is an extraordinary example of the evolution of symbiosis. Although it is unclear whether this relationship is mutualistic (one would have to determine whether the cyanobacteria is actually benefiting), the green coloration does appear to provide camouflage for this harvestman within the very lush, green habitat in which it was observed.
Prionostemma sp. “verde” – The green harvestman
Part III: How many species of daddy longlegs?
Longlegs fact #3:
With more than 6,500 species, Opiliones represent the third largest order of Arachnida. The largest arachnid order is mites/ticks (order Acari) with more than 50,000 described species, followed by spiders (order Araneae) with more than 40,000 species. For a better frame of reference consider this: there are approximately 5,700 species of mammals in the world while there are more than 350,000 species of beetles in the world.
Almost every time I travel to a new place in Central America to collect harvestmen, new species are collected. So there’s plenty more work to be done in understanding and describing the diversity of this group.
Below are more photos of harvestmen from Costa Rica.
Meterginus inermipes (Cosmetidae) from Costa Rica
Cynortellana oculata (Cosmetidae) from Costa Rica
Unknown species, likely a new species, of Cosmetidae
Prionostemma sp. (Sclerosomatidae) from Costa Rica
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