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Rilaena triangularis harvestman on bark of tree I spotted it by its bright red egg sack (?) moving in the corner of my eye. This one is hard to get entirely in focus with a macro lens so I took a bit of a distance.<br /> The identification as Opilio parietinus (corrected now to Rilaena triangularis) was an educated guess. Wikipedia mentions 2 species being extremely common in Western Europe, and this one seems to match the most out of the two. I could be entirely wrong though. Heeswijk,Macro,Opiliones,Phalangiidae,Rilaena,Rilaena triangularis Click/tap to enlarge

Rilaena triangularis harvestman on bark of tree

I spotted it by its bright red egg sack (?) moving in the corner of my eye. This one is hard to get entirely in focus with a macro lens so I took a bit of a distance.
The identification as Opilio parietinus (corrected now to Rilaena triangularis) was an educated guess. Wikipedia mentions 2 species being extremely common in Western Europe, and this one seems to match the most out of the two. I could be entirely wrong though.

    comments (10)

  1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
    Ferdy Christant
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    Side view:

    Rilaena triangularis side view Side view of a Rilaena triangularis harvestman (educated guess). Their range of eye sight surprised me. I always thought spiders had poor eye sight as it comes to range, yet this species was very nervous every time I moved, even when I thought I was out of range.<br /> <br /> I care about such details in behavior because it allows one to come closer to the subject. Geotagged,Heeswijk,Macro,Opiliones,Phalangidae,Rilaena,Rilaena triangularis,The Netherlands
     Posted 12 years ago, modified 12 years ago
    1. View WildFlower's profile
      WildFlower
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      This is the top view ;) Posted 12 years ago
      1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
        Ferdy Christant
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        Fixed. It was a long day :) Posted 12 years ago
  3. View Ferdy Christant's profile
    Ferdy Christant
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    Correction on my assumption on the meaning of the red sack: more likely it is infested with a mite. More info here:

    http://ednieuw.home.xs4all.nl/Spiders/Opiliones/Opiliones.htm     Posted 12 years ago, modified 12 years ago
  4. View Joost Thissen's profile
    Joost Thissen
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    That red 'thing' is a parasitic mite.
    See also here http://www.janvanduinen.nl/opiliones.php for another picture of an opilione with mite.     Posted 12 years ago
    1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
      Ferdy Christant
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      Funny, looks like we cross posted. I came to the same conclusion, but I think you did not see that comment yet. Posted 12 years ago
      1. View Joost Thissen's profile
        Joost Thissen
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        Indeed, I did not see that yet when I typed my message. Posted 12 years ago
        1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
          Ferdy Christant
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          Great site you shared by the way. Did you also check the one I posted? Really a great spider resource. Posted 12 years ago
  6. View Pudding4brains's profile
    Pudding4brains
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    I see you figured out the mite-nymph at the time.
    Note on your caption: The mention of Opilio parietinus as a very common species has been outdated for a decade or two now. It has been mostly eradicated by the arrival of two newcomers (Opilio canestrinii and Dicranoplapus ramosus). In the Netherlands, a few years back - after thinking the species had completely vanished, we found two populations of Opilio parietinus, but one of the two has been killed off by human interference by now, so currently we have only the one known population left.
    All eight "Opilio parietinus" currently on JD are actually three different other species. I'll correct those and upload a replacement series for Opilio parietinus :o)
    Cheers! Arp     Posted 6 years ago
    1. View Ferdy Christant's profile
      Ferdy Christant
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      Thanks so much for the cleanup work, Arp! Posted 6 years ago

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The Spring Harvestman

''Rilaena triangularis'' is a species of the harvestman family Phalangiidae. It is sometimes considered to be in the genus ''Paraplatybunus'', in the subfamily Platybuninae.

Info 8 0
Similar species: Harvestmen
Species identified by Pudding4brains
View Ferdy Christant's profile

By Ferdy Christant

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Uploaded Jun 18, 2013. Captured Jun 15, 2013 21:43.
country flag of Netherlands Explore Netherlands 8,314 2,306 0
  • NIKON D7000
  • f/8.0
  • 1/200s
  • ISO3200
  • 105mm

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