Sunday, September 17, 2006

Daddy Longlegses


I don't like being rude about insects, but I can't help thinking that Daddy Longlegs are the daftest creatures out.

If there was such a thing as a Silly Insect Contest, they'd win every time. In fact, that's probably why there isn't one.

I mean, what's the idea of those legs? Long, dangly things just trailing around in a soppy fashion. What are they supposed to do?

To find out more, I took a trip down Wikipedia Lane ...

The name Daddy Longlegs is used for a few different species. The one I mean is the Crane Fly.
It's got other common names: mosquito eaters, lollygaggers, gally-nippers, doizabizzlers, gollywhoppers, chicken flies, mosquito hawks, leather jackets, Jimmy Spinners or skeeter eaters.

Apparently, it's the second most feared creature among British people.

Erm, that's about it for Crane Flies.

The Daddy Longlegs was also the nickname of a "sea railway" that ran between Brighton and Rottingdean and cost sixpence to go on.


4 comments:

baruch said...

Your daddy long legs sea crane reminded me of a strange buiding I saw recently at Burnham on sea. Any idea what it is?
You might see a picture up from the spar.

alexhighrise said...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/20/nclimate20.xml
is a link to a story about these creatures

sb4444 said...

The Telegraph link again

alexhighrise said...

how do you do that?