Fun Fact Friday: Deadly Spider or Completely Harmless

"Daddy-longlegs are the most deadly spider in the world, but their fangs are too short to inject venom into humans."

Have you ever heard that phrase? TOTAL MYTH on multiple levels.  Daddy-longlegs are not even spiders, there is a daddy-longleg spider, also called a cellar spider, but the arthropod called daddy-longlegs is not actually a spider. They are from the Order Opiliones.  They do have eight legs, but differ from spiders on many levels, including NOT HAVING ANY FANGS.  That's right, they have NO fangs whatsoever. Meaning? No venom.  They largely live under fallen trees or rocks and scavenge for food and are not even commonly seen by most people.  Further separating them from spiders, they do not build webs or produce silk.  There are other details about difference, but this blog could get REALLY BORING REALLY FAST if I keep going on and on so I'll move on.  Now that that is out of the way, lets chat about daddy-longleg (or cellar) spiders.

There is NO scientific proof whatsoever to support the statement that Daddy-Longleg spiders have extremely poisonous venom.  No scientific research has been done.  For whatever reason, no one has volunteered to be injected with the spider venom.  Also noteworthy, no one has volunteered to do the injecting (something about medical code of ethics etc.).  Furthermore, there has been no research even on mice and daddy-longleg spider venom.  So considering the complete lack of proof about the level of toxicity in the venom, the statement is false because it is not supported by scientific research.

Another fact worth visiting as far as daddy-longleg spiders go is that they have the same fang structure as the brown recluse spider (which is clearly able to bite humans) so it is not even proven that they are not capable of biting humans-- the opposite is actually more supported scientifically speaking.  There may be a difference in muscle structure and strength between the brown recluse and the daddy-longleg spider causing one bite to penetrate and the other not, but again, nothing scientifically proven.  NOTHING BASED IN FACT.  Below is a quote in an article by the University of California Riverside Entomology Department.  And below that is a link to a much more in depth and informational article about the daddy-longleg myth.

"For true daddy-long-legs, the opilionids, the myth is certainly false, and for the daddy-long-legs spiders it is certainly not based on known facts." 

University of California Riverside 

 http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html