HARVESTER, HARVEST-SPIDER or HARVESTMAN, names given to Arachnids of the order Opiliones, referable to various species of the family Phalangiidae. Harvest-spiders or harvest men, so-called on account of their abundance in the late summer and early autumn, may be distinguished from all true spiders by the extreme length and thinness of their legs, and by the small size and spherical or oval shape of the body, which is not divided into two regions by a constriction. They may be met with in a great variety of situations. They are predacious, feeding upon small insects, mites, and spiders. The males are smaller than the females, and often differ markedly from them. The male is fur nished with a long protrusible penis. The sexes pair in the autumn, and the female, by means of her long, protrusible ovipositor, lays her eggs in some cleft or hole in the soil. After breeding, the par ents die. The eggs hatch with the warmth of spring. The adults are provided with a pair of glands, situated one on each side of the carapace, which secrete an evil-smelling fluid believed to be protective. Harvest-men are very widely distributed and are abundant in temperate countries of the northern hemisphere. They are also common in India. The long legs of harvest-men serve them not only as organs of rapid locomotion, but also as props to raise the body well off the ground, thus enabling the animals to stalk unmolested from the midst of an army of raiding ants. Harvester is sometimes, but erroneously, used as a synonym for harvest-bug (q.v.). (See ARACHNIDA.)