this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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This spider has taken residence in a corner of one of the rooms, I'm not bothered by them but the web is getting a bit too big... can I just remove part of it to keep the size in check without causing harm to the spider?

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[โ€“] PolyLlamaRous@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Unlike spiders, Daddy Longlegs don't spin webs because they do not produce silk. Daddy Long Legs actually have only two eyes unlike spiders who have eight. Another difference is that Daddy Longlegs are not venomous. They do not have fangs or venom glands. - from Google.

[โ€“] RandomStickman@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are many arachnids that shares the common name. Opiliones, or harvestmen, is what you are referring to. But a family of spider, phoclcidae or cellar spiders, spin webs and does whatever a spider does.

[โ€“] poweruser@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep the common name is regional. "Daddy longlegs" can also sometimes refer to crane flies, aka mosquito hawks/mosquito eaters

[โ€“] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Those things are so comically annoying

Especially if you have cats that like to knock shit off tables and shelves while attempting to enforce castle doctrine on them flies.

[โ€“] bec@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wait, I now have to research how they build their webs then, if not by spinning. Thanks for the trivia!

[โ€“] fujiwood@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

They prefer back and forth motion, shaking if you will, over a circular motion like stirring. Hence they don't spin webs. They prefer them shaken.

[โ€“] bec@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

"Wait, whaat..? That's amaz-... wait a minute"

[โ€“] livus@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No, the daddy long legs you're talking about is a spider and of course it spins its webs. @PolyLlamaRous was talking about something completely different, the harvestman.

From their likely source:

Other Daddy Longlegs

Some of the confusion over whether the daddy longlegs is a spider comes from the fact that there are two are small creatures with that name, and one actually is a spider.

The daddy longlegs spider is the cellar spider. It is pale gray or tan and has banding or chevron markings. Crane flies, which resemble large mosquitoes, are sometimes called daddy longlegs as well.

[โ€“] bec@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I was about to reach the same conclusion, as I couldn't find any mentions of alternative ways of spinning webs, so thanks for the confirmation!