Daddy Long Legs

Learn About the Daddy Long Legs

Description: 1/8-1/4" (4-6 mm). Long thin legs. Body reddish brown. Legs dark with prominent paler coxae. Eyes on black turret; 1 eye to right, 1 to left.

• Food Small insects and decaying organic matter.
• Life Cycle Female thrusts ovipositor into soil to deposit eggs. When warm weather arrives, young creep out and grow slowly. Normally they mature in summer, then mate without courtship. 1 generation a year.
• Habitat Fields on tree trunks and open ground.
• Range Throughout North America.
• On cool afternoons adults often climb trees or sides of buildings, seemingly to benefit from residual heat of the sun. A warm knothole may attract dozens of daddy-long-legs, which stand close together with legs interlaced all night.