Daddy Longlegs – The Harvestman

Reposted from my team blog at Beatiful Wildlife Garden:  Daddy longlegs – the Harvestman

There has never been a time I didn’t marvel at a daddy longleg.  Even today, I took the time to check this guy out when I saw him in the beautiful wildlife garden.

Perhaps it’s from sheer amazement for this creature — with out-of-proportion legs to their little bodies.  I often imagined alien craft for SyFy movies used these guys as design inspiration.

Even with a life-long fascination for daddy longlegs, it wasn’t until today that I actually learned about the harvestman.  As I began to research this critter, I soon realized there were many qualifiers to understand.  The quick solution, contact a credible source for help.  As such, I turned to my friend Debbie Hadley who has answered more than one questions for me about insects.
In fact, that is exactly who she is – About Insects

So I addressed my question to Debbie.

Helen – Debbie, I see there is more than one spider referred to as a daddy longlegs.  Can you please tell me what I have in the photo?

Debbie – You do, indeed, have a daddy longlegs, also called a harvestman. People use the name daddy longlegs to refer to three different bugs: harvestman, cellar spiders, and crane flies. The harvestman is an arachnid, but is not a true spider. It belongs to the order Opiliones.

There are several differences between harvestmen and spiders. First, the harvestman’s body is fused together into one section. Spiders have a distinct separation between the abdomen and the cephalothorax. The harvestman has just two eyes (visible in your photo as a tiny pair of black dots near the front end), while spiders have eight. Harvestmen do not produce silk, while spiders do. Perhaps the most interesting distinction is that harvestmen males have penises (spiders use an indirect method of sperm transfer, and don’t have penises)!

Worldwide, there are over 6,400 species of Opilionids living in all kinds of habitats. Many are omnivorous, feeding on small insects, bits of plants, and even fungi. Some scavenge decaying plant material, dead insects, or even feces. Many people believe that daddy longlegs are highly venomous, but have fangs too short to puncture human skin. This is entirely false. Harvestmen are not venomous at all, and can do no harm to people or pets. They’re quite beneficial arachnids, actually.

Thank you Debbie for your help to identify and learn about daddy longlegs.

Check out these two stories by Debbie on daddy longlegs:

What Is a Daddy Longlegs If It’s Not a Spider?
Is a Daddy Longlegs Venomous?

You can follow Debbie Hadley on Twitter @Aboutinsects

I have found that a quick tweet to Debbie with a photo resulted in answers faster than Google!

Thanks Debbie!

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum