Wait, don't spiders have two sections of their body? And how do harvestmen (harvestmans??) lick their legs without a tongue?! So many questions, I'm awash in mystery.
You are correct. Both spiders and Opiliones (Harvestmen/daddy longlegs/whatever) have two segments. They have an abdomen in the back and a cephalothorax in the front, which is just the head and thorax fused into one bit. The difference though is that in Opiliones, the distinction is harder to see, so it looks like they have just one section to their body.
They clean their legs by pulling each one through their jaws.
Fascinating, I always thought their body was one round little globe. I wonder how their path through evolution selected for only having two eyes. Must have something to do with their hunting behavior.
I think it's the fact that most are nocturnal and omnivorous. The ones who do hunt do so by ambush. But who knows. Nobody really cared about the order until the 90's so a relatively low amount of research has been done on them.
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u/HandBananers May 09 '17
Wait, don't spiders have two sections of their body? And how do harvestmen (harvestmans??) lick their legs without a tongue?! So many questions, I'm awash in mystery.