Another harvestman

I've been finding quite a few of this particular harvestman around the garden. My wife is very frightened of spiders, so I tried to show her that harvestmen are really OK - gentle creatures with no separate body parts, only two eyes, no webs, no horrible fangs with venom, etc. It didn't work! However, I'm fascinated. I thought that this one would be easy to identify, but was quickly befuddled by the detail in the edition of Synopses of the British Fauna devoted to Opiliones (Harvestmen). The recent FSC Guide to Harvestmen was a little easier, once I'd got to grips with the key features, especially the 'trident' structure at the front. I can reveal that this is Odiellus spinosus, a relatively large-bodied ground dwelling species that probably still has a largely southern distribution.

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