Malcolm wrote in message
...

In article opse7zgbemadtv40@matservices, M. Tiefert
writes
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


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.

Thanks for that. There are spiders in the UK that look a bit like yours,
though probably not as large and with oval rather than round bodies, but
with the same incredibly thin legs. They are called Harvestmen spiders,
though Daddy-long-legs would be a good name, too. Actually, again like
yours, although Arachnids, they are not regarded as 'true' spiders.

The only other name that I've heard used for the flying Daddy-long-legs
is Tipulids, which comes from the scientific family name, Tipulidae, in
which all the 300 species are grouped.

--
Malcolm

There is also a true spider in the UK which is commonly called the Daddy-
Long-legs Spider. Its scientific name is Pholcus phalangioides.
Spider