Daddy Longlegs

suspect this will be standard 1776 ish but just out of interest and because bugs are ok

first obv

dunno wtf two is, three is a mayfly

third is my accustomed childhood usage but I'm not wedded to the rightness of folk nomenclature

first one I wd've called a "harvestman", second one is just a spider imo

'harvestman' is funny, in dutch the first one is called a 'hay wagon'. third my accustomed usage as well tbf

hay wagon is excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsXyRVQN70U

this is a no-brainer: option one has the longest legs, therefore it deserves the honorific

crane flies often have much longer legs than in the picture I used tho, which was chosen for size and being botheredness

ok maybe not much longer but those are some long enough legs

also number 1 is now a Hooiwagen for life

One is a daddy longlegs, three is a jenny longlegs... I think?

number one is what i'd call a daddy longlegs anyway, although i'll also be tempted to use the dutch name from now on

... or the other way round... (xp)

Jenny Longlegs and Hooiwagen have already repaid the effort of making this

also initial research seems to indicate that these differences are more complex than national

fwiw my cats would happily chew on all three of them then leave their dismembered corpses strewn across the hall carpet

first one but I hate these fuckers, creepiest bug ever. I want to thank napoleon or the plague or brexit or whatever for making sure I never see these anymore

feel like making a parallel thread polling which one of these we think we've swallowed the most of while asleep

So Jenny Longlegs seems to be Scottish?

yeah, i'm sure my scottish grandparents used to talk about jenny longlegs occasionally although i haven't heard it in 20 years or more probably

first time I've ever heard the term, I'm not Scottish

Me too, and Daddy Longlegs = cranefly, i.e. number 3.

Harvestmen are most commonly known as Weberknechte (weaver's servants) in German. Other names include Schneider (tailor) and Schuster (cobbler). Wikipedia says they're also sometimes called Opa Langbein (grandpa longleg), but I've never heard that one myself.

http://linguaphiles.livejournal.com/5829016.html

idk why such terrible animals get to have so many cool names

itt: creatures i'm always rescuing from our bathroom

I don't really get the animosity to these guys, they're not poisonous, won't bite you, kinda delicate and beautiful looking and kill flies and other vermin afaik

they have long thin legs and that is creepy and scary, it's like watching hairs walk, they're against nature

they're household helpers and occasional cat snacks, i'm usually happy to let them go about their business

1. Daddy Longlegs.

2. A spider of some sort.

3. Sometimes colloquially called "mosquito killer" even though that's not what they do.

they have long thin legs and that is creepy and scary, it's like watching hairs walk, they're against nature

― droit au butt (Euler), Tuesday, May 23, 2017 10:50 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's a living thing, what a terrible thing to lose. can't really say a living thing is against nature tbh.

i dunno some of those lovecraftian deep-ocean creatures seriously give me pause to wonder if nature likes fucking with us sometimes

1: harvestman (named for the time of year you mainly tend to see them, thinks this country-born boy)
2: some old spider
3: daddy long legs (i was mortally afraid of these as a tiny, but i liked harvestmen)

i also associate 1&3 with warm humid thundery weather

"An urban legend claims that the harvestman is the most venomous animal in the world,[12] but possesses fangs too short or a mouth too round and small to bite a human, so is not dangerous (the same myth applies to Pholcus phalangioides and the cranefly, which are both also called a 'daddy longlegs').[13] This is untrue on several counts."

^^^reasons to be fearful, 1 (not 2) and 3

i dunno some of those lovecraftian deep-ocean creatures seriously give me pause to wonder if nature likes fucking with us sometimes

― 🎵 it's grey pubic now, stoner blue 🎵 (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, May 23, 2017 11:00 AM (forty-two seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah but then think about how we'd look to them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

no. 2 is a phalangioides I think

i'm sure our souls look delicious xp

"Pholcus phalangioides is not considered aggressive, its first line of defense being to shake its web violently when disturbed as a mechanism against predators."

same

p sure mines rotten to the core tbph xxp

the crane fly has two little stabiliser blobs sticking out of its thorax (you can just see one of them in the picture, very tiny)

this apparently helps them fly more elegantly, god knows what they'd be like w/o them

is "evolutionary bodging" a technical term I wonder?

I should note that in Midwest / Midatlantic USian, crane fly may be called "mosquito hawk" as well as "mosquito killer," but again, they have nothing to do with mosquitos other than also being insects.

As a child I was told that [3] was the Daddy-Long-Legs, but I feel that I was misinformed and it should be [1]

Also, [2] have pretty much invaded my house

"In 1935, Lord's Cricket Ground in London was among venues affected by leatherjackets. Several thousand were collected by ground staff and burned, because they caused bald patches on the wicket and the pitch took unaccustomed spin for much of the season.[15]"

wikipedia delivering the goods there re cranefly larvae aka leatherjackets

Could do with releasing some of those before the upcoming series against South Africa, I say, what?

daddy short leg, daddy square leg, daddy fine leg etc

'leatherjackets' is some tom of finland shit tbh

1. harvestman 2. spider 3. daddy long legs

I'm a bit of an arachnophobe and used to hate crane flies and their tendencies to wonkily bump into me and lurk on the back of toilet stall doors thus trapping you inside a cell of death, but now I am charmed by how terrible they are at flying. cellar spiders are cool though, shaking so fast you disappear is an A+ defense mechanism

1. Daddy Longlegs, also known around these parts as Granddaddy Longlegs
2. dunno
3. a "mosquito hawk," everpresent in the southern US

that middle one is one of them spiders that makes tons of unkempt cobwebs in yoru basemwent

1. Harvestman
2. House spider
3. Cranefly AKA why can't these fucking things tuck their legs in when they fly like a proper, decent insect

because they are not proper or decent

they are the worst imago, worse even than me

didnt kno there was confusion about this

no1 obv

how about do u kill em

James Comey has longlegs

Awww imago

I don't kill bugs so I just get rid of them, and I'm not arachnophobic but I don't like house spiders very much. I don't know how anyone can find #1 intimidating they're just an orb with these ridiculous long legs.

http://www.plasterersnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/P1000489_093_093.jpg

many xps re:stilts

I have seen the people that fit suspended grid ceilings using the stilts pictured above on quite a few sites in the past. They look quite ridiculous but when you are constantly working at above ceiling height it is quicker than moving steps or tower scaffolds around as you work. I only said they look ridiculous because I probably lacked the balance + coordination to ever use them without falling over.

#3, the one with wings. Particularly creepy on a warm summer's night, after the sun has gone down, when you've got the patio doors open and one flies in, does a buzzy traversal across a wall, then cuts across the room right in front of your face or past your ear.

are those stilts HSE compliant??

must be fun to take a piss on those stilts

xp

I'd say probably because I have seen them on numerous school jobs, maybe some card is required though. But yeah, they sure don't look it!

still reeling from the historical discovery that shepherds all used to wear stilts, as if it was something everyone knows

http://www.illustratedpast.com/people/Stilt-Walkers/postmanonstilts.jpg

the guy receiving the letter in this picture is very evidently thinking "this is neither needful nor normal but i'm keeping my mouth shut in case he tosses tomorrow's postcards into a tree"

i do like the idea of stilts being utilitarian work gear rather than the province of fucking hippies annoying me at outdoor events

that is not a shepherd but rather a post officer

Also regarding no [1] don't they do some hypnotic bouncing type movement ?

hmmmm... i've never seen #1 before, #2 is widely referred to as a daddy longlegs in new zealand, #3 i've never actually known the name for but i'm irrationally afraid of them - they fly @ u face!!!!

i've seen a type of #3 that has a long sharp stinger-looking thing on its butt

wtf is wrong with you ppl #3 is obv not even a spider!

Right - it's a daddy longlegs.

Harvestmen are gentle, good creatures of the forest, unless you're a bug being eaten by one

And they're (daddy longlegs, not harvestmen) just so useless! Leave a window open in the country and you house is full of the idiots, smashing into everything, leaving legs all over the shop. And they do that thing that spiders also do sometimes, where they stop on a bit of wall and just stay there. You think they're just taking a breather but they just die, like tiny versions of Buridan's ass.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Scottish Spider Search votes 2

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

This is correct for USians (at least Midwest/Midatlantic/South).

I know it is probably rong for Scots and other denizens of Yurp. Probably rong for other USian regions too. Sorry.

I voted once for each leg.

Which order were the pics in prior to the results? The bottom one is what I'd call a dll.

Top one (the arachnid formerly known as harvestman/haywagon) was on top. Other two have switched.

The arachnid now in the middle position (cellar spider) was on the bottom.

The one that's now in the middle (Crane fly / mosquito hawk / gallinipper / gollywhopper) had been on the bottom.

Gallinipper. I ask you.

Shit, I messed that up. Cellar spider now in the middle had been on the bottom. Sorry.

I meant that cellar spider now on the bottom had been in the middle. I need to go to bed.

lol

so broadly speaking the winner is US usage, the runner-up European and the last place antipodean?

Broadly reflecting the make up of ILX regular posters!

Daddly longlegs is a crane fly. The other two are just spiders. No doubt in my mind.

yr absence of doubt is misplace, a harvester is not a spider

Yeah harvestmen (order opilones) are arachnids but not spiders; the distinction is probably not interesting to most non-entomologeeks.

my dad was highly arachnophobic, flinching at even quite tiny spiders -- he was totally unbothered by harvestmen though, he said they moved in a different and non-scary way

(he was a naturalist, but his geek thing was plants)

it isn't the legginess of spiders that makes them unsettling so much as the other appendages on their heads that drag on the ground (palps I think?)

ok for research purposes i googled trypophobia arachnophobia: never do this

Interesting thing is, I encountered a dragonfly of some sort earlier. Basically a daddy long legs but the moral and spiritual implications are totally different.

Wha? Those fuckers are like 90% wing.

I suppose but there's still a sort of bumpy clumsy dangly body and legs element, just it's okay because it's shiny and nice. You feel brushed by a shiny friend instead of harassed

you only like them for their chitinous exoskeletons

dragonflies have nice big bulbous heads w/huge eyes, crane fly heads are clearly designed by gary larson

so this morning (and unusually) i noticed a crane fly* aka mosquito hawk on my bathroom wall. i am in a mood to be superstitious** currently, and my first thought was "uh oh" (second: "that's unusual")

i am no longer mortally afraid of them, as i was when tiny (see upthread) but they never come into my bathroom and are rare in london at all in my experience, and i was made uneasy by the visit

just now, not looking carefully while brushing my teeth and moving a plastic soap dispenser, i managed to half-drown and half-squish it, washing it (possibly already dead) into the plughole but not yet down the plughole. i am now in a mood to be MUCH MORE superstitious and uneasy :( :( :(

*daddy longlegs, call it by its name
**Superstition

Picturing those legs clambering back out of the plughole