Trogulus tricarinatus

Trogulus tricarinatus

''Trogulus tricarinatus'' is a species of harvestman. It is found in Europe and North America. It feeds on snails and lays eggs in the empty shells. It also feeds on insects and earthworms.
Trogulus tricarinatus One of the few species of the very inconspicuous family Trogulidae (Arachnida: Opiliones) in the Netherlands. Very a-typical of general Harvestmen habitus, and living on the soil, in leaf litter, under rocks and rotting wood these are often overlooked.  Arachnida,Dyspnoi,Harvestman,Opiliones,Trogulidae,Troguloidea,Trogulus,Trogulus tricarinatus

Appearance

''T. tricarinatus'' grows to between 7 and 9mm in both sexes. The second pair of legs grow to 8mm. The body is flattened and narrow. The legs are short and robust, with the front two pairs having two segments and the back two three. Immature specimens are violet in colour. They pass through six moults over a period of up to nine months before reaching adulthood.

The openings of the scent glands in this species are not visible and the glands appear to have a non-defensive role.

It is similar to the smaller ''Anelasmocephalus cambridgei''.

Habitat

This harvestman is widespread in Europe and has been introduced into North America. It is rare in Britain, usually found only in the south. It is generally found in calcareous areas, and is often found in leaf litter. It moves slowly and is usually covered in particles of dirt.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Hay Wijnhoven, Jinze Noordijk & Theodoor Heijerman (2014) Het hooiwagengenus trogulus in Nederland (Opiliones: Trogulidae) - Nederlandse Faunistische Mededelingen, vol.42(1), pp.1-10.
https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/625683/NFM42__01__001-010_Wijnhoven_et_al.pdf
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassArachnida
OrderOpiliones
FamilyTrogulidae
GenusTrogulus
SpeciesT. tricarinatus
Photographed in
Netherlands