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Harvestman waits

2 October 2008 8 Comments Home » Insects etc.

A harvestman waits in a Toronto backyard.

Harmless to humans, and not spiders,
we called them daddy longlegs when I was a kid.

Harvestman

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Harvestman
Arachnid | Opiliones | Eupnoi | Phalangiid | Phalangium opilio

8 Comments »

Deb Newton said:

In New England we called them Daddy Long Legs too, and I thought that was a regional name – glad to hear I was wrong! I was always afraid of them when I was a kid, but now it makes me happy to see one. My mother always used to say it was bad luck to kill a spider, or any other bug for that matter. And I still believe it. Although I heard that when the Dalai Lama swats at a pesky biter, he says “Go be a Buddha!”. I like that.

# 3 October 2008 at 4:08 pm

Rick said:

Nice story about the Dalai Lama, Deb.
I can’t imagine why anyone would kill another creature for no reason, and if I believed in luck, I would hope it would cause bad luck.

# 4 October 2008 at 4:22 pm

Moe said:

They are daddy long legs here in Iowa, too!

Great photo!

# 5 October 2008 at 11:01 am

Rick said:

Thanks, Moe. Maybe they’re called Daddy Long Legs all over the country, and we all think it’s a regional name.

# 5 October 2008 at 4:23 pm

Strangefeather said:

“The many loves of a harvestman” – you had a collage titled so some years ago; is it still extant? Can you post?

# 7 October 2008 at 5:09 am

Rick said:

That collage is over twenty years old, I’m not sure I have a digital image of it; I’ll check.

It was part of the art I displayed in the exhibition Super Realities – Surrealism in Detroit at the Detroit Artists Market in 1988.

# 7 October 2008 at 8:55 am

Diane said:

True, harvestman are not spiders. Daddy long legs are really cellar spiders, or so I’ve read, but this does remind me too of what we called a Daddy Long legs.

I always thought that this spider must be the model for all the early sci-fi spiders, lots of leg and a single round body. Nice silhouette shot.

# 24 March 2010 at 8:56 pm

Rick said:

Here’s more information: http://bit.ly/9kVi06

These arachnids look like spiders, but they aren’t spiders. In fact, they are different from spiders in many ways.

Unlike spiders, harvestmen do not spin silk. And they do not have venom glands or fangs. A harvestman’s body seems to have only one large body part. That’s because a harvestman doesn’t have a tiny spider waist.

Harvestmen have tiny mouth-parts that allow them to grind up their food. They eat insects and plants. Harvestmen do not bite, so they are harmless to people.

# 24 April 2010 at 11:14 am