Daddy Long-legs

     Two kinds of daddy long-legs live in southeastern Pennsylvania, including eastern and brown.  They are not spiders, but they are arachnids, related to spiders, scorpions and other creatures.  The eastern type is brown with a darker mark on top of the abdomen while the brown species is uniformly brown all over.  Both species have eight really long, slender legs.  They hold the middle of each leg high with the result being that their rounded, quarter-inch bodies are low to the ground.  The second pair of legs is longer than the others and also used as antennae. 
     Daddies do not spin webs, but track down their prey of tiny invertebrates.  Both kinds have poison glands for paralyzing their prey, but their mouths are too small to do any damage to us people, though many folks are afraid of them anyway, as they are of spiders.  Daddies are harmless to us.
     These two kinds of related creatures live in most of North America and have similar habitats and habits.  Here in the east they are most likely to live in woodlands and older suburban areas.  I see both types in abundance, mostly on the bark of larger trees and on the ground where they can run and hide pretty quickly.  Both species are well camouflaged in those niches for their own protection, but one can begin to see them most everywhere in proper woodsy habitats when you can see through their blending into those niches. 
     Several individuals of each species often cluster into tree cavities for protection and warmth through each night.  Interestingly, their legs are tangled among each other in those hollows. 
     After mating in summer, female daddies use their slender ovapositers on their rears to place eggs, one at a time, deep in soil where those eggs overwinter.  Both kinds of daddies survive the winter in the egg stage and the tiny young hatch in the spring, and mature during summer.        
     If the reader is lucky enough to see daddy long-legs of either species, remember they are harmless to us, and beneficial in that they eat lots of invertebrates.  If searching for these spider relatives, check the bark of maturing trees in woods, the niche where they are most likely to be.  They are handsome, little critters in their own plain ways, well worth the search for them.