MadSci Network: General Biology |
Hi Muriel, Your question is a little tricky, because "daddy long legs" is a common name that refers to several different critters. Some things people call "daddy long legs" are actually spiders, while others are spider relatives. They're all arachnids, but some are true spiders and others aren't. So the first question is, which critter do you mean? From the looks of things in my Web search on daddy longlegs, there are three different types of beasts that get lumped together under the name "daddy long legs". One is the harvestman, which is an arachnid but not a spider, one is the crane fly (an insect), and the other is any one of a group of spiders called pholcid spiders (all arachnids). They're all called daddy longlegs due to their long, delicate legs. I'm still working on how to tell them apart. According to Encyclopedia.com, harvestmen eat "a variety of organic materials, including fluids from fruits and vegetation, animal tissue, and even other harvestmen." (check out Encyclopedia.com and search for "harvestman") Crane flies eat plant matter and like wet spots (information also courtesy of Encyclopedia.com). You can distinguish crane flies from the other things you might call daddy longlegs, because crane flies have little wings. Sometimes the beasties are too far away to tell, but that's one hint. The pholcids, or "daddy longlegs spiders" (the true spiders of the three) that we have in the US are actually from Europe, although there are pholcid spiders in many parts of the world. The ones living in the US are commonly found in cellars. After a fair amount of searching, I did not uncover any information about what these guys eat. I did find a site with great photos of pholcid spiders and some more background information, including info on whether or not daddy longlegs bite. The complete answer is a bit complicated, but the short answer is don't worry about them. Check out http://spiders.ucr.edu/dad dylonglegs.html for photos and more info. I hope this helps -- keep asking questions!
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