Talk:Daddy longlegs

Scottish usage
Removed "(not Scotland)" from "Crane Fly" entry, because I grew up in Scotland in the 1980s, and "Daddy longlegs" almost always referred to the Crane Fly rather than the Harvestman (although Harvestman was also sometimes referred to with the same name).--Raksi (talk) 20:26, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Daddy Longleg surely is a quite funny sounding name, which probably has a nice story to it. So -- does anybody know the origin? Simon A. 14:48, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)

If a harvestman isn't a spider is it an arachnid? What's the difference? Rmhermen 14:12 Apr 16, 2003 (UTC)


 * see arachnid... ( spiders, scorpions, harvestmen?, ticks, and mites, it says). I remember daddy long legs from when I was a kid, and didn't they have wings? hmm. I could well be wrong. -- Tarquin 17:05 Apr 16, 2003 (UTC)

This seems semi-redundant with Opiliones. Stan 22:57 1 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Daddy Longlegs refers to several completely unrelated taxa and should be a disambig page pointing to them. WormRunner 22:28, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC)

moved from article
In Britain the crane fly (family Tipulidae, usually Tipula oleracea) is known to children as the Daddy longlegs.


 * Actually, I'm British, and looking at that page it doesn't look anything like a daddy longlegs, and daddy longlegs have 8 legs whereas the crane fly has 6.


 * Obviously the meaning of the word is very ambigious; in my area (Oxford) is seems to mean exclusively the flying insect. There are a lot around here in late September (there is water nearby - the larva are aquatic?), and the pictures of the crane fly on Wikipedia are instantly recognisable. Presumably they have short adult lives, like Mayflies? I say this because they tend to die or abandon legs all over the place at this time of year.


 * Thats interesting. I've not heard anyone in Britain use the term Daddy Longlegs in any context other than referring to a Cranefly. What other countries besides the UK use it?

Daddy longlegs (Harvestmen or Harvest Spiders) are long-legged arachnids which include the family Phalangiidae (members of the opilionids or "harvestmen"), and Pholcidae spiders.

Though these arachnids come from different orders (the opilionids are not spiders), the various organisms share the name "Daddy longlegs" due to their close resemblance. Each has notably long legs, connected to a relatively small torso. In the opilionids, the cephalothorax and the abdomen are fused almost into a single structure, while in the Pholcidae, a distinct separation is visible.

Unlike the opilionids, which are common to North America, the Pholcidae are web-spinners. Because they often choose to build their webs in cellars, they are sometimes known as Cellar spiders. When threatened, they will vibrate rapidly in their web to scare off attackers, and thus are sometimes called Vibrating spiders. The most common Pholcidae in Europe is Pholcus phalangioides. This spider produces one of the most deadly venoms in the arachnid world; however, due to the small size of the spider's mouth, it is not considered dangerous to humans.

The "most poisonous spider" bit is not necessarily true. It is true that it's mouth is too small to penetrate human skin. As there have been no reported incidents of bites from them, there has been relatively little testing.

Because of that, the whole "most poisonous spider" story remains unconfirmed. Some of the "Daddy Longlegs" which exist don't even have poison glands (harvestmen, for example, don't have poison glands).

Elar 06:37, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Moths? I doubt it but you never know...
An anonymous editor has added the following paragraph:

In the United Kingdom, the Meaning of Daddy Long Legs among many is of a Moth or Mosquito which has long legs, and a long, slender body and is often seen to fly around lighted areas, such as in and around lamps, lightbulbs, etc. The myth which was about the daddy long legs spider, seems to have been misconstrued from other countries' ideas of what a Daddy Long Legs is, and thus the wrong conclusion made about it.

Even if it's true, this statement is unnecessary as there is already a statement that the name is ambiguous. --Spondoolicks 11:35, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Plural?
What is the plural of Daddy long-legs? (see ) &mdash; Tivedshambo (talk) 16:45, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

As far as I know Daddy longlegs is the plural of Daddy longlegs.--Jcvamp 11:37, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Ginny spiders
The sentence "In the UK Daddy Longlegs are known as Ginny Spiders" is pretty meaningless when the whole point of this page is that the term Daddy longlegs is ambiguous. But if someone knows just what "ginny spider" refers to in the UK, that would be nice info for the relevant page.--Rschmertz 07:25, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

'Ginny Spider' sounds like a misheard version of 'Ginny Spinner' or 'Jinny Spinner' which is Geordie/Teeside dialect/Scottish/Northern term for a crane fly. Someone might be on the daddy longlegs page looking for the whether daddy longlegs is the same as jinny spinner or not; of course when they get to the daddy longlegs page they'll find that daddy longlegs refers to ALL the spindly long-legged arthropods, but noting the synonym might help someone who is more familiar with the words 'jinny spinner' than 'crane fly' - [don't have wikipedia account] 02:24 22nd September 2018 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.174.121.150 (talk) 01:25, 22 September 2018 (UTC)

Daddy Longlegs
Anyone know what this is then? This is one of two kinds of spiders we in MN call daddy long legs, both look different then any of those pictured. (I'll get a pic of the other type mext time I run across one!)




 * Take a look at Pholcidae. Yours looks similar to the last (rightmost) of the four. So I'd say it's a Daddy Long Legs Spider, just darker than most. Peter Ballard 03:57, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Crane fly
Shouldn't it be included? Orphan Wiki 00:22, 2 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Oh I've just added it, rather than wait for a reply which isn't likely to come. Orphan Wiki  00:31, 2 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Turns out it was included until recently, when some nutter removed it. Orphan Wiki  00:36, 2 October 2010 (UTC)