Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here here's one you might have
Speaker 1: heard before. Urban legend has it that Daddy long Legs
Speaker 1: carry the most toxic venom of any known spider, but
Speaker 1: the tail goes. Their little fangs can't penetrate human skin.
Speaker 1: This story has no basis in fact, and besides, Daddy
Speaker 1: long Legs is a colloquial name that's been applied to
Speaker 1: a wide range of unrelated animals, most don't even qualify
Speaker 1: as spiders. Colloquial or common names can be confusing, but
Speaker 1: was sure they're catchier and less in Latin than the
Speaker 1: formal scientific names for species, but at least that scientific
Speaker 1: nomenclature is fairly standardized. A genus or species name may
Speaker 1: change as living things are reclassified, but common names for
Speaker 1: the same creature can change from region to region. For example,
Speaker 1: you know that crustacean that looks like a smaller version
Speaker 1: of a lobster. What do you call those crayfish? Crawfish, crawdads, yabbies,
Speaker 1: freshwater lobsters. They're all names for closely related animals. As
Speaker 1: common names go, Daddy long Legs is overused, and it's
Speaker 1: pretty inconsistent. Usually when Americans say it, they're referring to
Speaker 1: one of the six thousand plus aracted species within the
Speaker 1: order of Pillionnaise. Some folks know these critters as the harvestmen,
Speaker 1: but they're not spiders. Look at a spider and you'll
Speaker 1: see two main body segments that are clearly distinguishable, the
Speaker 1: cephalothorax where the head resides, and the abdomen. On harvestmen,
Speaker 1: these components are fused, giving the body an oval like appearance.
Speaker 1: And whereas spiders have eight eyes, harvestmen only have two.
Speaker 1: Unable to produce silk, harvest men don't build webs, and
Speaker 1: they don't have venom. We spoke by an email with
Speaker 1: Rick Vetter, a biologist and author who's confronted plenty of
Speaker 1: misconceptions about spiders and their kin. He explained, except for
Speaker 1: one weird family, all spiders have venom to subdue prey.
Speaker 1: Harvestmen have no venom, So let the records show that
Speaker 1: they are not dangerous to humans. But you can breathe
Speaker 1: easy around these daddy long legs, unless, of course, you
Speaker 1: are their prey. Instead of venomating other animals, harvestmen rip
Speaker 1: their meals apart with appendages located near the mouth. Slugs, springtails,
Speaker 1: and earthworms are just some of the invertebrates. These creatures
Speaker 1: will hunt, though they're not too picky and don't mind
Speaker 1: scavenging once in a while too. But harvestmen aren't the
Speaker 1: only creatures called Daddy long legs In Great Britain Better
Speaker 1: tells us the name refers to crane flies, which are insects.
Speaker 1: Huntsmen and other arachnids walk around on four pairs of legs,
Speaker 1: while crane flies only have three pairs, and insects possess
Speaker 1: three main body segments plus a set of antenna. People
Speaker 1: tend to get crane flies mixed up with mosquitoes, but
Speaker 1: crane flies don't suck blood, and they spend most of
Speaker 1: their lives as water or soil based larva. Once that
Speaker 1: phase ends, these invertebrates mature into two winged adults. They're
Speaker 1: not called Daddy long legs for nothing, though, just as advertised,
Speaker 1: mature crane flies do in fact have noticeably long legs.
Speaker 1: Sometimes these appendages are twice the length of the insects body.
Speaker 1: The biggest known crane fly displays a ten inch leg
Speaker 1: span that's twenty five cimeters. Adults don't tend to have
Speaker 1: big appetites. Certain species will stop eating altogether after the
Speaker 1: larval stage, and nevertheless, crane flies provide an important food
Speaker 1: source for other animals, including reptiles, birds, and spiders, speaking
Speaker 1: of which, in a surprise twist, some people reserve the
Speaker 1: common name Daddy long legs for a group of actual spiders.
Speaker 1: Let us introduce the false to day, better known as
Speaker 1: these seller spiders. These arachnids enjoy dark habitats such as
Speaker 1: empty burrows, rocky crevices, and of course sellers. One species
Speaker 1: of European origin now shacks up in human dwellings all
Speaker 1: over the world. Fall kiss phialanioidas is a yellowish brown
Speaker 1: predator that weaves horizontally oriented webs. Falseod fangs are tiny,
Speaker 1: only about a quarter of a millimeter long, and they're
Speaker 1: designed to make physical contact with a corresponding spine to
Speaker 1: form pinchers, not unlike a pair of tweezers. And while
Speaker 1: falsehoods are venomous, the good news is that venoms don't
Speaker 1: affect all targets equally. When researchers examined the venom of
Speaker 1: a falsehood called faiso cyclists mexicanus in They found it
Speaker 1: was extremely hazardous to insects, yet the creatures bite had
Speaker 1: an inconsequential effect on mammals. There's simply no evidence that
Speaker 1: this arachnet, nor any of the seller spiders is harmful
Speaker 1: to human beings. Still, we may be on the cusp
Speaker 1: of something here. Fal Kiss Phalanioidas specializes in killing and
Speaker 1: devouring other spiders, including members of its own species, So
Speaker 1: who knows. Maybe those diet preferences gave rise to the
Speaker 1: nonsense rumors about super toxic Daddy long Live's venom. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other creepy Crawley topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
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