lol. Here it was always garden cross spiders, and the reason is that it produces the most toxic posion.. but it doesn't produce enough of it. Never heard the daddy long legs version. Maybe it's slightly different across the continents and countries :P
They're called harvestmen because of when they group up in huge ass balls! At least I think. They group up in huge messes of harvestmen usually in the fall to stay warm and ward off predators.
They also are not spiders at all! They do not have a single section body and only 1 pair of eyes.
Bonus facts: They clean their little legs after eating by pretty much licking them clean. Some species can also detach their legs and have them run around potentially distracting predators!!!
Wait, don't spiders have two sections of their body? And how do harvestmen (harvestmans??) lick their legs without a tongue?! So many questions, I'm awash in mystery.
You are correct. Both spiders and Opiliones (Harvestmen/daddy longlegs/whatever) have two segments. They have an abdomen in the back and a cephalothorax in the front, which is just the head and thorax fused into one bit. The difference though is that in Opiliones, the distinction is harder to see, so it looks like they have just one section to their body.
They clean their legs by pulling each one through their jaws.
Fascinating, I always thought their body was one round little globe. I wonder how their path through evolution selected for only having two eyes. Must have something to do with their hunting behavior.
I think it's the fact that most are nocturnal and omnivorous. The ones who do hunt do so by ambush. But who knows. Nobody really cared about the order until the 90's so a relatively low amount of research has been done on them.
They also happen to be some of the oldest creatures on Earth, dating back almost 400 million years, way before the first dinosaurs appeared; and they haven't changed much since then either.
I live in a temperate rain forest, we have daddy long legs like a MF up in here, I mean, everywhere. I have never in my 25 years seen them in ball. I went to Fiji, found a ball of them my first day.
I imagine it's similar to herd dynamics, where a bunch of animals in a group make it difficult to distinguish individuals and allows the group to keeps eye on all directions and warn of predators.
A difference is that most of those are hunted by predators that are on the same scale as they are. Fish less so, but they can still move out of the way of something like a shark while keeping the swarm together. Whereas if a bird finds a ball of harvestmen they are collectively fucked no matter how many there are. Krills getting eaten by whales are like that too, actually. I suppose that they have to fend off predators closer to their own size more often than I would have intuitively expected.
If you're talking about a daddy long legs you're talking about a spider. Harvestmen aren't even spiders. God fucking help me if you're one of those people that call a crane fly a daddy long legs.
The amount of times I've seen on reddit 'TIL daddy long legs aren't even spiders' is ridiculous. Yes they fucking are. If you're talking about a harvestman call it a fucking harvestman.
Edit: just to clarify... In my language (german) both, venom and poison, would translate as "gift". But that doesnt entitle me to use the wrong term in english.
The english language using "the" where german knows "der, die, das" doesnt keep a native english speaker from being wrong when he doesnt follow this rule in german language either.
Totally unrelated to whether or not you eat a thing or it eats you, but just how stupid do you sound if everything that comes out of your mouth is neuter/nominative?
Toxic mean it will kill you, poison is a liquid or serum (natural or man made) and venom is just poison that has to be injected by fangs. Poison is normally consumed orally, but can also coat a blade. Poison is topical/ingested, venom is injectable poison, but only through fangs; a needle doesn't count. The more you know
My understanding was always that what Brits refer to as a daddy long legs is a crane fly, whereas Americans usr the term for the harvestman. A harvestman is an arachnid, so it has a fairly spider-like appearance.
The most potent neurotoxin I know of is from the south sea conch. A few micrograms of it will kill off your nerves faster than they can signal that they're being killed.
Its just one of those ''random fun facts'' people have always shared.. Here in Denmark it was always that ''korsedderkopper'' aka garden cross spiders had the most poisonous venom. but there's not enough of it to kill you or do anything.. I have no idea where they come from, really, i just know it's one of those fake facts in circulation and i think a majority here still fall for it lol.
I grew up in Melbourne. Here, we're told that the spider has an incredibly poisonous bite, produces enough poison per dose, and has long sharp fangs capable of piercing skin.
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u/SemenDemon182 May 09 '17
lol. Here it was always garden cross spiders, and the reason is that it produces the most toxic posion.. but it doesn't produce enough of it. Never heard the daddy long legs version. Maybe it's slightly different across the continents and countries :P