Why do they call them daddy long legs?
Some people here are obviously confused about the term ‘daddy-long-legs’. It is actually used to refer to three different animals – crane flies (which are insects), harvestmen (which are arachnids, but not spiders), and spiders of the family Pholcidae. Sometimes crane flies are distinguished by being called ‘flying daddy-long-legs’, and pholcid spiders by being called ‘daddy-long-legs spiders’, but it is common for all three just to be called daddy-long-legs. Those saying it is just for one and not the others are simply not correct. All you have to do if you wish to be specific about which creature you mean is to use the name crane fly, harvestman, or pholcid spider (these spiders are often called cellar spiders in the US). The origin of the name daddy-long-legs is rather unclear. It may come from a 1912 novel of the same name, by Jean Webster – the book is about a girl in an orphanage whose benefactor is a tall man. Since he has long legs and she does not know his name, she calls him
