Pennsylvania Game News - October 2009 - 53

nids are probably most closely related to scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and solifugeae, which include wind scorpions and camel spiders. Their heads, thoraxes and abdomens grow together to form compact, oblong bodies, usually no longer than 5/16-inch, that come in hues of brown, if they are mostly nocturnal, or yellow, green or reddish-brown if they are diurnal species. They have a knob or black turret on top of their heads, with a tiny eye on each side that can detect movement several feet away. They use their second pair of legs, which are longer than the others, as antennae to explore, search for food and warn of danger. In front and to the sides of their eyes are two pores from which a chemical scent is emitted that deter large predators and ants. Beneath their bodies, they have a pair of pedipalps or pincers with which they grasp, tear and stuff food in their mouths, fight other harvestmen and clean their legs. They can easily discard a leg if it is caught and grow a new one. The detached leg twitches in some species for a minute, in other species for as long as an hour. To move, they have so-called “pacemakers” in the ends of the first long section or femur of their 7-jointed legs that sends signals through nerves to the muscles in their legs to stretch. Between signals the legs rest. Some researchers believe that the twitching leg keeps a potential predator occupied while the daddy long-legs escapes. Birds, mammals, amphibians and spiders, some of which are not deterred by their chemical defense, prey on them. Thus, some species of daddy long-legs may defend themselves by gluing debris on their bodies or by playing dead. They, in turn, are omnivorous and eat small insects, plant material and fungi. OCTOBER 2009 Some species are scavengers that specialize in dead creatures, bird dung and other feces. Most ambush their prey and, unlike other arachnids, which must liquefy their prey before ingesting it, daddy long-legs can eat chunks of food. In late summer and early autumn, after most daddy long-legs’ species have gone through six nymphal stages, they are ready to mate. It is then that they emerge from their usual habitat under leaf litter, logs and rocks in damp forests to search for mates. After mating, the female may lay her eggs immediately or wait for months. The smaller male drives away rivals, while she lays eggs a few at a time in soil or under rotten wood until nothing is left of her but an empty shell. Only one known daddy long-legs’ species in eastern North America hibernates as an adult. The rest die and leave their eggs to hatch into new daddy long-legs the following spring. The other early autumn charismatic (to me) invertebrate is the walkingstick, distant cousin of crickets and (ugh!) cockroaches. Walkingsticks belong to the Phasmatodea or Phasmida order of insects, which includes, among others, European stick insects, walkingsticks and leaf insects. “Phasma” comes from the Greek meaning “phantom,” because their resemblance to sticks or leaves makes them difficult to see. But when they appear on our white board house or on our screens, as they do in October, their stick-like bodies always impress me. I’m not the only person who finds walkingsticks intriguing. Some people keep them as pets, the most popular being the Indian stick insect — Carausius morosus — because it (or, rather, she) eats a wide variety of easily obtainable foods, such as lettuce and privet and thrives at room tem53

Pennsylvania Game News - October 2009

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