Welcome

Help record Harvestmen now ... One of the main aims of the recording scheme is to provide up-to-date data on the distribution of Harvestmen in Britain. The data available on this website has been gathered by the Biological Records Centre(BRC) at Huntingdon and it is the intention of the Harvestmen Recording Scheme (HRS)* to continue this work. The distribution maps and summary charts on this website are generated from the latest data available to the recording scheme. If you can add to these, please provide your data to the scheme through your Area Organiser or contact us. Overall coverage builds on work in 1942 by Mr.T.H. Savory and expanded on in the subsequent revisions of the Linnean Society Synopses of the British Fauna with the collaboration with Mr J. P. S. Sankey (Warden of Juniper Hall Field Centre) and lately Mr P. D. Hillyard (of the Natural History Museum) in its Third Edition (2005) of the New Series. The coverage is suprisingly good for such a small Order within the overall class of Arachnida. It is therefore not surprisingly patchy in some areas, with some counties intensively recorded, whilst other areas remain more poorly covered.

It is the intention of the HRS to build on the previous work of the Third Edition and to encourage the gathering of data on their autecology and phenology, and has the following objectives. In order to achieve these objectives, arachnologists should, as far as possible, record harvestmen using a structured methodology developed inline with the Spider Recording Scheme (SRS) after their publication of the provisional atlas. Please don't be put off by what may seem like an undue demand for detail. In practice the minimum acceptable record to the scheme would comprise date, locality, 4-figure grid reference, collector and identifier, preferably with information on habitat. On the other hand, remember that information not submitted is effectively lost and cannot help improve our understanding. You can see examples of what our objectives can provide for each species using the A-Z Species Index or find out more.... However the gathering of autecological data is still in its early stages, and there is a long way to go with this if we are to gain good countrywide coverage. You can help by recording harvestmen using the SRS Phase 2 structured methodology and providing this data to the national recording scheme, preferably using the biological recording and mapping software MapMate. This data can then be easily provided to the scheme through your Area Organiser and uploaded to this website

The principle means of sharing information on Harvestmen is this website and the 'Spider Recording Scheme Newsletter' which is issued three times a year to members of the British Arachnological Society(BAS). It contains articles and notes, submitted by recorders on all aspects of the recording of harvestmen, as well as regular updates on the progress being made in the Harvestmen Recording scheme (HRS). Since November 2002 the SRS News has been incorporated with the British Arachnological Society Newsletter which is also available on-line to anyone who is not a member of the Society.

* Previously known as the Opilione Recording Scheme (ORS) until 2012.