The Arachnida for the most part, are an easily recognisable class of arthropod, provided you are talking about spiders with their eight legs and two part bodies. It gets a little less clear when considering Harvestmen and Mites.

The Order Araneae represents the nearly 700 species of spider recorded in Great Britain. Of which a handful call the Garden home.

The Order Opolines represents the Harvestmen, of which around 30 species are present in Great Britain, but just the one record for us so far.

The Order Oribatida represents the Oribatida Mites

The Order Mesostigmata comprises a large group of mites, made infamous by the member Varroa destructor, a parasite having a devastating impact on honey bees.

This Order includes the Red Velvet mites. Despite being the only representative of this order so far, they have played an interesting role in many garden observations so far…

Just the one species from this order so far, and even then only known from the Gall it forms on Cleavers…