![]() ![]() He will then, not surprisingly, approach the female very cautiously for coupling. In what human females might perceive as downright annoying behaviour, the male initiates courtship with four consistent actions: abdominal vibrations, tapping the female’s web, jerking the web and tapping the female’s legs. While the female is solely responsible for the care of eggs and protection of young, it is the male who takes the lead in courtship and mating. The second trick is to lay down a ‘path’ of its own non-sticky web over the resident spider’s sticky thread, effectively creating its own non-stick pathway. The first is the use of its long spindly legs to tiptoe across the tacky threads, thereby minimising contact with the sticky web. It actually has two amazing tricks up its sleeve. Interestingly, the daddy long legs builds a non-sticky web, which does make one wonder how it fares when it invades the web of a sticky-web builder. ![]() In addition to hanging about in its own web, it has been recorded invading the webs of other species, where it will eat the owner of the web, any prey it had in its web, and its eggs if they happen to be there as well. Individual daddy long legs can be both web builders and web invaders. However, what it lacks in venom potency is compensated for by its hunting versatility. Its exaggerated notoriety as a highly venomous spider may have arisen after being observed preying on other well-known arachnids, including the redback spider Latrodectus hasselti and the grey huntsman Holconia immanis. On the second, if it chooses to inject its venom into human skin it has the capacity to do so, a result that was famously demonstrated on an episode of Mythbusters in 2004. On the first, research has shown that daddy long legs venom is actually not exceptionally potent, even to insects.
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