Megabunus diadema is a species of harvestman in the family Phalangiidae.Catalogue of Life It is distributed in Western Europe, where it has been found in Iceland, Faroe Islands, Western Norway, Great Britain, Western France, Belgium and Northern Spain.Stol 2005
It is commonly found among moss and lichens, and has a cryptic coloration that blends with this habitat, rendering it almost invisible when it is not moving.Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 375 Its second pair of legs is as long as 35 mm.Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 494 Its prominent pair of eyes is equipped with a spiny "crown".
M. diadema was shown to feed on chironomid flies.Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 312
The gregarines Actinocephalus megabuni and Doliospora repelini (Eugregarinorida), and the mite Leptus beroni were found to parasitize on this species.Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 342,344
During a study of woodland in Scotland, they were found to be most active during March, June to July and December; in montane regions of Wales they only occurred in August, while they were found all year round in English woodland, with a peak from May to August.Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 289
The mainly parthenogeneticStol 2005 M. diadema lays three batches of eggs per year, with about 30 eggs per batch that are deposited among leaf litter or on the soil.Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 431 The larvae, like many in the suborder Eupnoi, have an egg tooth.Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 464
Males have 28 chromosomes.Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 268
Footnotes
References
Pinto-da-Rocha, R., Machado, G. & Giribet, G. (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen – The Biology of Opiliones. Harvard University Press
External links John Partridge: Drawing of M. diadema