On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 07:51:47 +0100, Malcolm
wrote:


I can't imagine why you were able to find something on Google which
indicated they were spiders! They have six legs and one pair of wings
and are flies. There are some 300 different species in the UK, of which
the largest has a wing span of about 6 cm, the smallest about 1.5 cm.

That's the trouble with common names. As far as I know, there are two
different spiders in the U.S. that are both called daddy-long-legs. One in
the East (well, at least in Ohio) has a round smooth bright-brown body a
little over 1/4 inch in diameter, with very thin legs that touch the
ground in a circle with a diameter of about 2 inches. (IIRC, this is
actually not a true spider.) The one in California is rather disappointing
by comparison - a rather ordinary thin small pointed spider-type body,
with legs that splay out to only about an inch.

cheers,

Marj
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