Daddy Longlegs

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