This is the first report of the chemistry of the defensive secretions of harvestmen of the family Phalangodidae. Using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy, we identified 2-methyl-5-ethylphenol as the sole methanol-extractable component from specimens of Bishopella laciniosa (Crosby & Bishop) from North Carolina, and from a single specimen of Texella bifurcata (Briggs) from Oregon. This compound has been recorded in Opiliones before as a component of the secretion of the cosmetid species Cynorta astora Goodnight & Goodnight and Eucynortula albipunctata (Pickard-Cambridge), the gonyleptid Pachyloidellus goliath Acosta, and the stygnommatid Stygnomma spinifera (Packard).