Opiliones
No. of jars: 612
No. of species: 329
Types: 196
Harverstmen are a moderately diverse group of arachnids with over 6500 described species. These animals superficially resemble spiders but their abdomen and thorax are fused to form a single oval body structure and they do not have silk glands. Some harvestmen have extremely long legs and are commonly referred to as ‘daddy longlegs’. The LIB collection is fairly extensive and comprises 329 species of which almost 200 are represented by type-material. With more than 180 registered species, the family Phalangiidae is a centrepiece of this collection. Some species were described by pioneering arachnologists such as William Soerensen und Tord Thorell in the 18 th century. However, the entire collection was revised by German zoologist Carl-Friedrich Roewer in the early 20th century when he published a series of monographic papers that were based primarily on the specimens from Hamburg. There is no biogeographic focus and the species are from many countries all over the world.
To the catalogues:
- Weidner, H., 1959: Die Entomologischen Sammlungen des Zoologischen Staatsinstituts und Zoologischen Museums Hamburg, I. Teil, Pararthropoda und Chelicerata I. - Mitt. hamb. zool. Mus. Inst., 57: 89-142. [ PDF ]
- Rack, G., 1971: Die Entomologischen Sammlungen des Zoologischen Instituts und Zoologischen Museums Hamburg, I. und II. Teil (Nachtrag), Pararthropoda und Chelicerata. Mitt. hamb. zool. Mus. Inst., 67: 109-133. [ PDF ]