Who’s Your Daddy? | National Geographic

[Music]
what is this evany thicket is this a
tangle of black seedlings swaying in the
breeze nope it’s a group of
daddy-longlegs so what exactly is the
daddy-longlegs
besides being something that looks like
it was dreamed up by a science fiction
writer it’s a spider right not wrong
then it’s got to be an insect right
wrong again
they’re called a pill yawns which is
Latin for Athan suckers okay now here
are the sakis Athens clinging to a row
stem in a garden in the northeastern
United States Athens are everywhere they
reproduce like crazy
why because they can reproduce without
having sex now truth be told this is a
mommy daddy longlegs and you’ll never
find a female with more shapely legs
than this
nice huh her legs are slender as threats
but this mommy daddy longlegs can hear
taste and smell using those slender
limbs so what exactly is your daddy
longlegs mouth form
unlike other more uncouth creatures the
daddy-longlegs choose her food
thoroughly even if she doesn’t outside
her mouth she sucks up the aphid juices
through a flexible tube and then she
flosses using one of her own body parts
to help nature thinks of everything
having long legs allows them to hover
high above predators plus two legs emit
a nasty smell these legs also have
built-in seismographs so she can feel
the approach of an enemy like for
example the tiger beetle with a face
only a mother tiger beetle could love
they size each other up squat killing
machine versus sky – sucker
[Music]
the beetle attacks and grabs the lake
the tussle turns into a tug of war
neither giving an inch and then the
daddy longlegs reveals a nifty
life-saving mechanism a quick-release
leg special muscles close up the stump
the tiger beetle no genius thinks it has
something worth having the daddy
longlegs limps her get away still alive
and and kicking