Daddy-longlegs have mouthparts similar to those of crabs or scorpions that they use to hold prey while they eat. To protect themselves, daddy-longlegs produce a pungent odor most predators find distasteful. Males tend to have smaller bodies than females but they have longer legs. Legs easily break off. The ability to break off legs is similar to the ability of lizards to break off a portion of their tail if being attacked by a predator.
The second pair of legs are the longest and are used as a sensory structure similar to the way insects use their antennae. Female daddy-longlegs lay their eggs in soil, under stones, or cracks in wood. The eggs are laid in the autumn and hatch in the spring. In the northern areas of the United States, daddy-longlegs live for only one year.
In South Carolina and the rest of the southeast, daddy-longlegs can overwinter as adults and live for up to two years. Daddy-longlegs are generally beneficial. They have a very broad diet that includes spiders and insects, including plant pests such as aphids. Daddy-longlegs also scavenge for dead insects and will eat bird droppings. In the fall, they can become a nuisance when they congregate in large clusters on trees and homes, usually around eves and windows.
Additionally they can be found in damp crawl spaces, unfinished basements, and garages. Rarely are daddy-longlegs encountered inside finished, living spaces of homes. Since daddy-longlegs are beneficial predators and scavengers in nature, control should only be performed when absolutely necessary. The clustering behavior only occurs during the fall and for only a brief period of time.
Spiders, of the order Araneae, have a distinct waist between the cephalothorax and the abdomen. Opilionids have just two eyes, compared to the usual eight in spiders. Daddy longlegs also do not produce silk, unlike spiders. They do not spin webs, and they do not use webs to capture prey. If you find a harvestman in a web, it does not live there. It probably would like to be rescued from the spider that is about to eat it.
Finally, daddy longlegs are not venomous. They do not have fangs, nor venom glands. Most spiders, with only a few exceptions, produce venom. Daddy longlegs stink when threatened, thanks to defensive stink glands, which have been observed to repulse predators.
Daddy longlegs are usually extremely well camouflaged. During the day, many of them hide in crevasses, and when disturbed, they usually curl up and remain motionless for several minutes by playing dead—which works extraordinarily well. Anyone who has tried to catch a daddy longlegs knows they have a tendency to shed their legs. Grab one by the foot, and it promptly lets go of the entire leg and runs off. They will voluntarily shed legs to get away from predators, but sadly a new appendage does not grow back if it is already full grown.
There is some hope if it is in the nymph stage that the leg might grow back. Its legs are not just vital to locomotion, they are also nerve centers. Through its legs, the daddy longlegs may sense vibrations, smells, and tastes. Pull the legs off a harvestman, and you might be limiting its ability to make sense of the world. Unlike spiders that use an indirect method of transferring sperm to females, the harvestman does tend to have elaborate mating rituals and a specialized organ capable of depositing sperm directly into the female.
In some harvestman species, there are "sneaky males" also known as beta males, who camouflage themselves as females, get close to a female and plant its seed into unwitting females. Some of the confusion over whether the daddy longlegs is a spider comes from the fact that there are two are small creatures with that name, and one actually is a spider.
Explore even more! Additional spider resources and more myths poor spiders can't catch a break! Myth: A "daddy-longlegs" is a kind of spider. Illustration: Henry C. Breadcrumb Home. Will the real "daddy-longlegs" please stand up? Spider Myths "Everything that 'everybody knows' about spiders is wrong! Explore More Myths Previous Next. Spider Myth Resources.
Learn More. Become a member Experience even more.
0コメント