Our little Discovery!!

So we went into the garage the other day and found this......

Now look at it again.  the first thought that comes to your head is Spider right!?  Huge horn like fangs!!  It has 8 legs so it must be a spider... right!?  Well this isn't a spider.  This is a Harvestmen Opilioned.  It is part of the Arachnid Family but in the order of the "above name I just mentioned".  So here are the differences.....

Harvestmen (HM) have only one body part.  The head and abdomen are 1 where as the spider has 2 an abdomen and head.  The HM legs are attached all along the body where as spiders are attached only to its head and the abdomen is free of legs.  Spiders have silk properties where HM do not.  Spiders have venom, HM do not.  Spiders have 8 eyes, HM only have 2.  HM eat decaying animal and insect matter as well as plants.  Spiders lay egg sacks spun in silk and have spider-lings but HM digs a hole and lays there eggs into the ground kinda like a turtle and they hatch in the spring.  Interesting right!! 

Harvestmen Opilioned 

A spider......  See the difference? 

This is how I demonstrated it to my boys and taught them the differences.  It was really fun to learn about too.  I had no idea!

It is so fun to learn and to discover with my boys :)