crazy amount of daddy long legs

[wildherbalian85]

Now this is interesting (if not a little creepy).

Could or do this amount of Harvestmens ever group together like this here in UK???

LiveLeak.com - Mass of Daddy Long Legs On A Tree

[Geoff F]

Daddy Long Legs is a confusing term; which, in this country, mostly applies to members of the Crane Fly family.

However, some harvestmen can gather together in groups at certain times of the year; although not exactly a commonplace occurance.

But Gordon (Action Man) is the best person to answer your question in greater detail.

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by Geoff F

Daddy Long Legs is a confusing term; which, in this country, mostly applies to members of the Crane Fly family.

However, some harvestmen can gather together in groups at certain times of the year; although not exactly a commonplace occurance.

But Gordon (Action Man) is the best person to answer your question in greater detail.

Crane fly??

Daddy long legs to me has always been either a Harvestmen or a cellar spider.

[No.9 Spider]

The usual problem with common names
I'm with Geoff on this one regarding the Crane flies, in my Cheshire upbringing Daddy Long-legs were either Crane Flies or Opiliones (Harvestmen), though also I'd heard 'Jenny Spinners' used for Crane Flies but I'm going off topic here. I've seen 'groups' or clusters of Opiliones together before but in nowhere near the numbers seen in the video clip.




No.9 Spider

[Moonmoth]

Actually 100 years ago this might have been a common sight it seems we have killed off a whole lot more than most people think as a child I remember that in spring the Buddleia were covered with hundreds of butterflies sadly not anymore and because it is a gradual decline people tend not to notice so much and forget what it should be like .

[darrenm]

thats an incredible bit of footage and have heard the name Daddy Long legs applied to both Harvestman and Crane Fly species over the years.

agree with moonmoth and have also seen the massive decline in a lot of insect species and maybe this is why a lot of our insect eating bird species have also declined in recent decades. In the summer you couldnt travel in many rural areas without your car windscreen being black with insect bodies at the end of the journey and now in most places this is a thing of the past and maybe some of it has got to do with the over intensification of agriculture and repeated long term use of both pesticides and herbicides in our green and pleasant land.