136 HARVEST -SPIDERS 



English call it Shepherd either because it is pleased \^-ith the Com- 

 pany of Sheep or because Shepherds think those fields that are full 

 of them to be good wholesome Sheep-pasture . . .' Hooke (1658) 

 in his Micrographia gave the alternative names 'shepherd or carter 

 spider' and Bristowe (1949) quotes an old Essex superstition that 

 it was unlucky- purposely to kill a har\-estman because of the belief 

 that these creatures helped farmers with the so-the, rake and sickle 

 which they were alleged to possess. In France they are known as 

 faucheurs (reapers) because they give the appearance of reaping as 

 they walk, while the German Weher-knechte may refer to the jerky 

 movements niade by the legs of these animals after they have 

 become detached from the bodies of their owners. 



Only two species, Phalangium opilio and Leiobunurn rotufidum, 

 are at all conspicuous in our fields and are most noticeable at the 

 harvest season, when they reach maturit}*. Consequently these, 

 particularly P. opilio, are probably responsible for the name 

 'har\-estmen'. Bristowe (1949) beUeves that ' Phalangiuyn which is 

 of eighteenth centun* ori^n, is derived from the Greek 'phalanx' 

 and that the har\-est-spider was likened to a formidable soldier in a 

 phalanx because it was confused with the ver\' poisonous 'Mal- 

 mignatte', Latrodectus l3-guttatus, a relative of the notorious 

 'black-widow' spider which occasionally bites reapers in the fields of 

 southern Europe. On the other hand, Sankey (1949b) has suggested 

 that the name may be derived from phalange, a head or toe seg- 

 ment, for long Umbs are one of the most conspicuous features of 

 most har\-est-spider5. 



The biology of the Laniatores, so common in tropical regions, is 

 practically unknown beyond the fact that they lead retiring lives in 

 damp forests beneath bark, fallen trees and moss, and occasionally in 

 caves. In New Zealand the han'estmen of the sub-order Laniatores 

 are always found in forested countr}' or in areas which have in 

 recent times been forested but where the bush has been felled and 

 cleared, leaving decaying logs and small pockets of forest which 

 provide a favourable habitat. The great majorit}' of species require 

 a high and even relative humidit\'. They are nocturnal and are to be 

 found during the day sheltering beneath logs and stones, in the 

 debris on the forest floor, in moss growing in similar situations or 

 on the trunks and branches of trees in the wetter areas. The leaf- 



