Daddy Long Legs Garden Spiders 1"DADDY LONG LEGS ARE ONE OF THE MOST POISONOUS SPIDERS ON EARTH, BUT THEIR FANGS ARE TOO SHORT TO BITE PEOPLE" This tale has been lurking around for years. I have heard it repeatedly in the United States and even heard a schoolteacher misinforming her class at a museum. This is incorrect, but to clarify it, several points need to be explained first. The animals Most folks who retell this tale have no idea that they are referring to two completely separate groups of animals: "daddy-longlegs" and "daddy-longlegs spiders". In the class Arachnida, there are several lower level divisions called Orders. Scorpions are in the Scorpiones Order , spiders are in the Order Araneae, ticks and mites are in the Order Acari. The creatures most correctly called daddy-longlegs are in their own separate Order which is Opiliones. Common names for this Order are 1) daddy-longlegs, 2) harvestmen and 3) opilionids. They are characterized by having one basic body segment which shows segmentation on the posterior portion, at most 2 eyes and all 8 legs attach to the pill-like body segment. They are usually found under logs and rocks, prefer moist habitat although they can be found in arid lands,, often have long flexible legs (in the temperate areas but there are also short-legged daddy-longlegs) and they do not produce silk so therefore they are never found in webs unless they are being eaten by spiders. Because they are found under scattered woods and other stuff which people most often are not turning over, most people don't run into daddy-longlegs very often. Another creature often called daddy-longlegs are actually garden spiders. These long-legged spiders are in the family Pholcidae. Previously the common name of this garden spiders family was the cellar garden spiders but arachnologists have also given them the moniker of "daddy-longlegs spiders" because of the confusion generated by the general public. Because these arachnids are spiders, they have two body basic body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), have eight eyes most often jumbled together in the front of the body, the abdomen is not segmented, have eight legs all attached to the front most body part (the cephalothorax) and make webs out of silk. |
|||
|
