{"id":585,"date":"2014-12-07T04:08:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-07T04:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scifundchallenge.org\/firesidescience\/?p=585"},"modified":"2018-09-10T17:27:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T00:27:40","slug":"bedtime-science-daddy-longlegs-calling-a-spider-a-spider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scifundchallenge.org\/firesidescience\/2014\/12\/07\/bedtime-science-daddy-longlegs-calling-a-spider-a-spider\/","title":{"rendered":"Bedtime Science: Daddy longlegs – calling a spider a spider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the second instalment of Bedtime Science.<\/h4>\n

I reckon if you’re reading this for yourself you’re old enough to have a look at\u00a0the stuff in brackets. If you’re reading it to a little person you can happily\u00a0skip what’s in the brackets.<\/h6>\n

Daddy longlegs!<\/h1>\n

There are at least two very different types of\u00a0minibeasts<\/a>\u00a0called\u00a0daddy longlegs. They all have eight long legs, which is where they get their name. One is a type\u00a0of spider and the other is not a spider. You’ll have to remember that the harvestman is another name for the type of daddy longlegs that is NOT a spider or this story is going to get confusing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was a University student\u00a0I was learning about minibeasts and I had to collect some. I needed two different types of arachnid<\/a>. Spiders\u00a0are arachnids but there are also other types of arachnid. I could easily\u00a0get a spider but I needed one other type of arachnid too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Minibeasts\u00a0are small animals without backbones –\u00a0scientists call them\u00a0invertebrates.)<\/p>\n

The harvestman is one of those other types of arachnid and\u00a0I decided I’d get one of them. Mites<\/a> are so small you can hardly see them. I thought a scorpion <\/a>would be too hard to find. But finding a\u00a0harvestman\u00a0turned out to be harder than I thought.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My Granny heard\u00a0that I needed a daddy longlegs. She told me she had plenty and I could come and get one. That was a relief. But when I went over I found she had these:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This one’s on my bathroom ceiling.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That was disappointing.\u00a0People do\u00a0call this\u00a0a daddy longlegs but it wasn’t the right type of daddy longlegs. The type I wanted\u00a0doesn’t have a\u00a0web but this one did so I knew it was a spider.\u00a0 I didn’t need\u00a0another spider. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The little round blob on the top of the body in the photo is\u00a0an egg sac, so this is a female.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Spiders have two separate body segments<\/a>\u00a0– a separate cephalothorax and abdomen. In harvestmen the cephalothorax and abdomen\u00a0aren’t distinct so\u00a0it looks like they only have one body segment. And they\u00a0don’t have a web.)<\/p>\n

(Some helpful information<\/a> from the Australian Museum also tells me it’s probably a\u00a0Pholcus phalangioides,\u00a0<\/em>which is one of the most common household spiders in Australia, where I live.)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Pholcus phalangioides with egg cocoon from https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Pholcus.phalangioides.6900.jpg. Source: picture taken by Olaf Leillinger on 2005-08-26 License: CC-BY-SA-2.5<\/a> and GNU FDL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Above\u00a0is a very\u00a0nice close-up picture and you can see the egg-sac really well. You can even see the bristles on her legs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Daddy<\/a>
Daddy longlegs – the harvestman type<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I accidentally brought this elegant\u00a0harvestman into the house yesterday. This is\u00a0the type of\u00a0daddy longlegs I’d wanted all those years ago. You’re seeing double because the strong light is making\u00a0a strong shadow.<\/strong><\/p>\n