The Harvestman is a brown insect-like creature with a compact oval-shaped body and long spindly legs. The Harvestman can be found throughout the country in fields, woodlands, parks and gardens around April to October. It can often be seen on walls and on fences in the day resting with its legs spread apart.

The Harvestman can be five to eight centimetres in length and its legs are around five centimetres long. It has four pairs of legs and not three pairs, like true insects have. The second pair of legs is longer than all the other legs and the Harvestman uses these legs to feel its surroundings. It can also shed a leg when it is threatened and the disconnected leg can move and twitch around on the ground which helps to distract a predator. The Harvestman has two very small eyes.

The female Harvestman lays her eggs in moist soil and the eggs can lie dormant over the winter till the following spring. The young look like mini adults when they hatch out of the eggs, but their legs are a lot shorter. It takes two to three months for the young to develop into mature adults with their characteristically long spindly legs.