Join us for a free talk followed by a walk to uncover the hidden biodiversity & ecology of Ireland’s harvestmen. #OurOpiliones
On 9th October @ 10:45am, join our conservation officer Josh for Diversity of our Opiliones as he discusses the role of harvestmen in our ecosystems, their incredible morphology, defensive tactics, life histories and biodiversity. This talk will be topped off with a walk to find some of the species hidden in Crawfordsburn Country Park. Discover species adapted to catch small jumping prey, those with almost entirely female populations, and more that have acclimatised incredibly well to urban habitats.
Harvestmen are completely harmless to us with no venom glands, thus provides a friendly gateway for those with Arachnophobia — they are not spiders! We hope to remove the stigma around Arachnids one step at a time, showing their diversity and importance in our ecosystems.
Please use the hashtag #OurOpiliones to share photographs from the event and for identification help.
This event is for anyone with an enthusiam for biodiversity and issues facing it. We do recommend to be at least of GCSE age or older due to the topics covered (invasion ecology, urban ecology, and the biodiversity and climate crises). People of all abilities are welcome to attend the talk, however, the walk will be in a forest habitat in autumn with hills and uneven ground that may be unsuitable for some.
We will meet at Crawfordsburn Country Park Visitor Centre in the Meadow Suite.
Talk will start at 10:50am and last until roughly 11:30. We will then have a short break before exploring Crawfordsburn.
We highly recommend good comfortable walking shoes/boots that are ideally waterproof, and suitable clothing for walking in a forest habitat in Irish autumn/winter. Optional to bring a torch which will make it easier to find certain species in the dark habitat. Please feel free to bring a camera if have a macro photography set up. Food is not provided by us, however, there is a café on site and welcome to bring a packed lunch. Toilets are also available on site.
There are limited tickets and so if you are no longer able to attend, please contact so that we can reallocate the tickets.
