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I was having a tough time deciding what to write about tonight until I had a suggestion from one of my biggest fans, my mom!\u00a0 She originally wanted me to write about the “Dock Spider” but I think I will save that post for another day.\u00a0 Her second choice was to write about the Harvestman!\u00a0 Of course, she called them something a little more familiar, “Daddy Longlegs.” Let’s move onto the interesting stuff.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned, in North America, the Harvestman is better known as the Daddy Longlegs.\u00a0 In Europe this common name is reserved for another insect called the Crane Fly, which will also be discussed in the future. The biggest and most important thing you need to know about Daddy Longlegs, I hope you are sitting for this one, is that they are not actually spiders. They may look like spiders but they are very different. Instead of having eight eyes such as a regular spider, the harvestman only have two.\u00a0 As well, spiders have two body segments while the “daddy longlegs” have their head, thorax and abdomen all fused together into one.\u00a0 Just to make sure everyone is clear, the daddy longlegs is part of the Arachnid class like spiders, however, they are not actually spiders.\u00a0 To put it another way it would be the same as mistaking a mosquito for a ladybug.\u00a0 Mosquitoes are insects but not beetles.<\/p>\n

Now, let’s talk about the most prominent feature of the harvestman.\u00a0 Their extremely long and special second pair of legs.\u00a0 This set of legs touches the ground before any other part of the harvestman.\u00a0 They contain special sensory organs that allow them to get an advance taste and feel for the ground ahead.\u00a0 Basically, these legs act as their nose, tongue, ears and perhaps even as a second set of eyes.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the harvestman have a defense mechanism that causes them to lose their legs if they are in danger.\u00a0 This obviously allows them the ability to escape, if necessary.\u00a0 I tell you this so you don’t handle these special animals too much.\u00a0 The loss of their legs is a serious problem since it would be like taking away your nose, mouth and ears!<\/p>\n

Harvestman Fast Fact: <\/strong>The daddy longlegs are not capable of killing or poisoning their own prey so will resort to eating dead insects or the eggs of insects and spiders.<\/p>\n

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I was having a tough time deciding what to write about tonight until I had a suggestion from one of my biggest fans, my mom!\u00a0 She originally wanted me to write about the “Dock Spider” but I think I will save that post for another day.\u00a0 Her second choice was to write about the Harvestman!\u00a0 Of course, she called them something a little more familiar, “Daddy Longlegs.” Let’s move onto the interesting stuff. As I mentioned, in North America, the Harvestman is better known as the Daddy Longlegs.\u00a0 In Europe this common name is reserved for another insect called the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4024],"tags":[348,226,650,649,4025,511,509,258],"yoast_head":"\n