Daddy longlegs have a single pair of eyes, oriented sideways, in the middle of their heads and it’s a little disconcerting to peer through a macro lens and see one of these eyes looking toward you. Daddy longlegs (also known as harvestmen) belong to the arachnid family, but are not spiders. Harvestmen make up the order Opiliones and, according to Wikipedia, there may be as many as ten thousand species of harvestmen worldwide, with over 6500 already discovered.
I cropped the first shot of the harvestman to allow you to see the eyes better, but it doesn’t really give you a sense of the length of the legs. The second shot, which is actually a less-cropped version of the first one, shows you more of the legs. I did crop out the ends of the outermost legs, though, to keep the body from looking too small.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I’ve never seen one that close. Great photos!
Thanks, Dan. I am always tempted to get close when I have the macro lens on my camera and even though this is a cropped shot, I am really happy I was able to capture this much detail.
(Luckily) I’ve never seen one of those! Nice macro, especially the cropped version.
Thanks, Camilla. I do recall that you are not a big fan of spiders either. These little guys are really harmless and I find them to be more odd than creepy.
It’s a cyclops! Sort of. They are very odd.
In the close-up shot, it sure looks like a cyclops. They are definitely unusual, sort of like spiders, but different in so many other ways (no web, no venom, etc.)
I have learnt something today, first that this isnt a spider and secondly that what we call daddy long legs are in fact three species that look so similar people don’t normally see a difference between them.
Like the macro, prefer the uncropped version but that is just my taste.
Thanks, Ben. Almost two years ago, I posted a shot of a harvestman and got a response from a guy who has been studying them for almost a decade. Yikes. In terms of the shots, I generally prefer the uncropped version too (which is why I framed it that way when I shot if). My experience has been, however, that a reader’s attention is best grabbed by cropping in tightly to emphasize the subject. Hopefully they will read the posting and see the shot that shows more of the body and the surrounding environment.
Ah you never know who’s watching.
It’s not exactly Orwell’s “1984,” but there are eyes (and cameras) almost everywhere. Not that you should feel paranoid or anything….
Excellent shots, mine for tomorrow will pale in comparission..:-)
Thanks, Ed. Somehow it seemed appropriate to post shots of a Daddy Longlegs on the eve of Fathers Day.
Such tiny eyes for a comparatively large body!
I don’t think they help much in seeing. It’s the opposite of a jumping spider, which has a whole series of huge eyes and a relatively small body.
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