Today is

By: Ikedi Ani-okoye

Daddy long legs

Daddy Longlegs: This harmless insect has a one-piece body; a spider's body has two segments. I love the delicate feel of a Daddy Longlegs walking along my arm. The longer legs are this insect's sense organs. If I tap my hand launching Daddy Longlegs into the air, its body turns into a parachute, guiding this sky diver to earth. This is one of my favorite summertime memories.

Daddy long legs not a spider?

Daddy-long-legs isn't a spider, though it looks a lot like one. It doesn't have a waist between its front body part and its abdomen. Its legs are longer and thinner than a spider's, and it carries its body hung low.

Under a spider's abdomen, near the rear, are tiny stubs called spinnerets. The spider uses its legs to pull liquid silk made in its abdomen from the spinnerets. The silk hardens as it stretches. Since silk is made out of protein, a spider eats the used silk of an old web before spinning a new one.

Daddy long leg insight

Insect in the family Tipulidae are commonly known as crane flies. Adults are very slender, long-legged flies that may vary in length from 2–60 mm (tropical species may exceed 100 mm).

In Canada, the UK and Ireland they are commonly referred to as daddy long legs, but this name can also refer to two unrelated arthropods: members of the arachinid order Opiliones (especially in the US and Canada) and the Cellar spider Pholicidae (especially in Austailia).

CONCLUSION

The name 'daddy-long-legs spider' is a bit confusing. These spiders look a bit like daddy-long-legs, i.e. the Crane-flyTipula, but these have wings. They also resemble the long-legged harvestmen of the family Phalangiidae(!) (also often called daddy-long-legs) but if you watch these closely you can see that the head, thorax and abdomen is fused. In spiders there is a clear distinction between the head/thorax region and the abdomen. Perhaps a better name that is been used is 'long-legged cellar spider'.