January 28, 2010 | Caraça Natural Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil
This image of a harvestman in the family Gonyleptidae is one of my favorites from my trip to Caraça Natural Park.
As a kid, I cherished my Golden Guide to Spiders and Their Kin. Ever since I saw an illustration therein of a wild looking Gonyleptid, I’ve wanted to find one. I got excited early in the trip when I found a shed skin. On the last night, I was out with my headlamp and I encountered not just one but two!
They were both difficult to photograph. Although slow moving, they just wouldn’t stand still. I had to keep herding them back onto the trail. Eventually, this one stopped in an area that made for a relatively uncluttered background.
Gonyleptids include the largest of the harvestmen and are only found in South and Central America.
Here’s a wider shot showing the whole thing.
References:
Wikipedia entry for Gonyleptidae
[book:1582381569]
Spectacular! Makes my little ol’ Leiobunum look positively mundane!
I’ll be in Brazil the last two weeks of January – I should be so lucky as to encounter one of these.
I look forward to the blog entries from that trip!
Wow! What a cool critter. I’m with Ted: All the harvestmen I see (here in Texas) now seem downright prosaic.
That is something else–an armored harvestman.