However, they can modify their stance to walk even when they are missing up to three legs. This is called the alternate tripod gait. If you watch daddy long legs closely, you will see that they always keep three legs on the ground as they are walking. Daddy long legs will actually drop their legs-no need to pull them off-as a means to escape predators. (They cannot live if they lose both of the two legs which hold the spiracles, however.) Sometimes the detached leg will continue to twitch, a mechanism used to confuse its predator. Which is odd placement, because daddy long legs can lose their legs but they do not grow back. The most interesting fact about granddaddy long legs is that they smell and breathe through their legs with specialized holes called spiracles. You may have heard the tale of their being the most venomous spider around, but in reality, they secrete only enough toxin for a small predator. They are related to spiders but daddy long legs do not have the segmented bodies spiders have, nor do they weave webs. The “grand” part of their name is usually left off and most people just call them daddy long legs, although they are also known as harvestmen.Įven though they have eight legs, and people call them spiders, they are not spiders. Granddaddy long legs are one of the easiest creatures to identify, with lengthy appendages on a round, tick-like body.

Facts about daddy long legs