Difference Between Attic Spider And Daddy Long Leg
So here we will find out how to tell if a spider is not a brown recluse.
Difference between attic spider and daddy long leg. Daddy longlegs are closely related to scorpions order scorpiones but because of their appearance are often mistaken as spiders order. They both are in the same animal class as spiders arachnida but the real daddy longlegs is called a harvestmen and is not a spider. I think the longlegs term matches harvestmen very well. Like all arachnids they do have eight legs and tend to skitter about the way spiders do.
These long legged spiders are in the family pholcidae. Arachnologist rick vetter is an expert on the brown recluse spider who has. Most people refer to them as daddy longlegs but a true daddy longlegs is a distant relative of the cellar spider. I was always under the assumption that the daddy long legs were spiders so i learned something new today.
Another creature often called daddy longlegs is actually a spider. Daddy longlegs order opiliones also spelled daddy longlegs or daddy long legs also called harvestman any of more than 6 000 species of arachnids class arachnida that are known for their extremely long and thin legs and for their compact bodies. But before we do it s important to note that even if you do find a brown recluse it s not that big a deal. The name daddy long legs is used to refer to several different spiders most often a crane fly a cellar spider and harvestmen.
The female is slightly bigger. Daddy longlegs do have some spider like qualities since like spiders they are classified as arachnids. Bill de giulio from massachusetts on november 09 2018. Previously the common name of this family was the cellar spiders but arachnologists have also given them the moniker of daddy longlegs spiders because of the confusion generated by the general public.
The pholcidae are a family of araneomorph spiders the family contains over 1 800 pholcids individual species of the family pholcidae including those commonly known as cellar spider daddy long legs spider granddaddy long legs spider carpenter spider daddy long legger vibrating spider long daddy and skull spider the family first described by carl ludwig koch in 1850 is divided into. It is a bit confusing since the name daddy longlegs is used for one spider. The cellar spider exhibits a bit of trivia here an unusual behavior in that it vibrates in a circular fashion when the web is disturbed. Daddy longlegs spiders can range from 2 to 10 mm long but their legs can grow up to 50 mm according to the entomology department at pennsylvania state university.
The answer is actually more complex than you may have thought.