American Scientist

November-December 2009

Volume: 97 Number: 6

Found in caves and wooded canyons of the Sierra Nevada in California, this Ortholasma harvestman is an unnamed and undescribed new species, less than a centimeter in length. The ornate grillwork over its body, springing like an Elizabethan collar from between its tiny eyes, is an adaptation to gather and hold particles of soil, which probably serve to camouflage it from predators. The brush-like appendage it brandishes is covered in sticky hairs, and may be used like flypaper to gather the small insects and mites on which it feeds. The specimen was cleaned using ultrasonics and photographed by William A. Shear under a scanning electron microscope at East Carolina University. In "Harvestmen," Shear describes more weird wonders from the world of these strange and diverse arachnids.