Cellar spider daddy long legs bodies plus#

“They are most diverse in tropical areas, where the moist climate and thick foliage allow them to live in lots of places. “They’re usually found in humid areas, such as under rocks, in leaf litter, and inside caves,” Clouse said.

These arachnids can be found on every continent but Antarctica. In Europe, terms like ‘harvestmen’ and ‘shepherd spiders’-and even their scientific name, Opiliones-refer to them as being associated with good pasture, harvest season, or perhaps even their resemblance to shepherds on stilts or the shape of a scythe.” 5. 'So, the large, short-legged forms in South America are often referred to by their pungent odors. “In other regions, their common names reflect different attributes found in the species common to those areas,' Clouse said. But there are different names for them around the world.

In North America, the reason for at least part of their name is pretty obvious-the species we see most frequently have very long, thin legs. To put this in perspective, this is about 200 million years before dinosaurs appeared, which were only around for about 165 million years.” 4. It is believed daddy longlegs split off from scorpions, which were becoming terrestrial about 435 million years ago. “This fossil actually looks a lot like the long-legged species we see today. “We know from a very well preserved fossil of a daddy longlegs from Scotland that they are at least 400 million years old,” Clouse said.

And, if that's not confusing enough, there's another creature that sometimes goes by the name daddy longlegs: The crane fly. According to Clouse, the rumor might have gotten started during “the retelling by an American tabloid of a study in Australia on the venom of a daddy longlegs there the problem is that in Australia, ‘daddy longlegs’ refers to a type of spider,” also known as the cellar spider ( Pholcus phalangioides). They don't even have fangs, and they can't make venom, either. That thing you heard at summer camp about daddy longlegs being the most poisonous creature in the world, but with fangs too weak to bite you? Not true.

Cellar spider daddy long legs bodies plus#

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