h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Interesting, I just looked up daddy long legs on google because my understanding of a Daddy Long legs is the creature more correctly called a Crane Fly.

These swarm the UK in Autumn and are used by little boys to scare girls (I used to put one in my mouth and let it fly out again to do this ) and to pull legs off.

It seems the rest of the world have different creatures as daddy long legs. The Harvestmen being the one quoted in this article.

I mention this because crane flys have wings and cannot therefore remotely be considered arachnids.

Just thought you'd like to know

Yes, I am aware of crane flies. They are in fact insects, due to the fact that they have six legs and a seperate head and thorax. Here in Ireland, some people use daddy long legs to refer to the harvestman, some use it for the crane fly. I prefer not to use the word for either to avoid confusion. In both cases, daddy long legs refers to the long, spindly legs.