The common name is misleading as it's not the only European harvestman! I'm not aware of it having a common name here in the UK, though it's a species I'm certainly familiar with.
Common names are far too often misleading. Far easier to remember than scientific nomenclature but confusing. My bugbear are the world's Robins - the one over here is actually a red-breasted Thrush and there are something like 40 species of "Robins" in Australia, some of which are yellow. My wife is the botanist around here and gets quite hot under the collar when it comes to plant names. Soldier on, I suppose 🙃 ... ** Quite possibly, I will have to check, the 'European' part of that name may have been imposed by a North American committee in the same way as "the Robin" of Britain is known here as the European Robin.
Our robin's 'proper' common name is Eurasian Robin I think, but no-one here calls it that, as it's the only robin we have! Common names are a great way of getting people interested in less appreciated groups (such as harvestmen). I don't think any of our harvestmen have common names and I'd agree that the 'European' in this case has been imposed by a North American! Some of our hoverflies have wonderful common names though and that can help get people interested (Footballer Hoverfly, Batman Hoverfly and Drone Fly being just three)
I do agree - it's all fun and interesting. I can't find the title right now but there is a book by a chap from Sweden about hoverflies. He lived on an island off the coast and although not an entomologist just got fascinated by hoverflies and started studying them. Down a huge rabbit hole.
Hoverflies are wonderful insects, I got interested in them pretty much by chance. I'd be interested to look out for that book if you can remember the title. (But don't look it out specially for me!)
The common name is misleading as it's not the only European harvestman! I'm not aware of it having a common name here in the UK, though it's a species I'm certainly familiar with.
Common names are far too often misleading. Far easier to remember than scientific nomenclature but confusing. My bugbear are the world's Robins - the one over here is actually a red-breasted Thrush and there are something like 40 species of "Robins" in Australia, some of which are yellow. My wife is the botanist around here and gets quite hot under the collar when it comes to plant names. Soldier on, I suppose 🙃 ... ** Quite possibly, I will have to check, the 'European' part of that name may have been imposed by a North American committee in the same way as "the Robin" of Britain is known here as the European Robin.
Our robin's 'proper' common name is Eurasian Robin I think, but no-one here calls it that, as it's the only robin we have! Common names are a great way of getting people interested in less appreciated groups (such as harvestmen). I don't think any of our harvestmen have common names and I'd agree that the 'European' in this case has been imposed by a North American! Some of our hoverflies have wonderful common names though and that can help get people interested (Footballer Hoverfly, Batman Hoverfly and Drone Fly being just three)
I do agree - it's all fun and interesting. I can't find the title right now but there is a book by a chap from Sweden about hoverflies. He lived on an island off the coast and although not an entomologist just got fascinated by hoverflies and started studying them. Down a huge rabbit hole.
Hoverflies are wonderful insects, I got interested in them pretty much by chance. I'd be interested to look out for that book if you can remember the title. (But don't look it out specially for me!)