Daddy Long Legs

So, Yesterday Jacob and I learned quite a bit about daddy long legs. I have a fear of squishing spiders. And Jacob says daddy long legs help kill other bugs, so we have a pet daddy long leg in our shower. I had told him our spider was getting bigger....
Then last night....
I was taking a shower and he (the spider) was just hanging there... So I show Jacob.

Jacob: I think he is dead.
Kara: ...... I used to want you to kill him, now I am kind of sad that he is gone.
Jacob: Wait something is growing from him.
Kara: It looks like a sack of eggs (just a circle of white...)

Look a few seconds later...
Kara: It looks like a baby spider! (wondering if it was a sack of eggs...)

Then it kept growing.

This is when we began to wonder if Spiders shed?
Kara: Do spiders shed?
Jacob: I don't know.
Kara: They have an exoskeleton, I think.
Kara again: That means he is going to get bigger!!!

Jacob laughs. First I wanted him dead, then I didn't, and now, he is going to get too big.

Anyway... I have to say that was one of the coolest things I have ever seen! I wish I had a better camera so I could have taken better pictures. But we saw the WHOLE process of a spider "shedding." I don't know how many people get to see that process in their life (besides those who study spiders. haha)

Also... according to the internet, Daddy long legs are not even spiders. They are in the same class as spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks, but are not spiders. Their body is a globe (instead of having a "waist" like spideres do, they have only 2 eyes instead of 8, they don't produce silk, so they don't make their own webs, their second pair of legs is what guides their walking, they need to drink often (which is why it was in my shower), they also don't need their legs to get by (but their legs are what helps them make sense of the world), and they don't grow legs back either. This one some might not care to know, but I thought it was interesting: "Daddy longlegs have penises, and spiders do not. Spiders use an indirect method of transferring their sperm to females. The daddy longlegs, on the other hand, has a specialized organ capable of doing the job directly."

And I thought this description was cool:

"The daddy longlegs paints a rather humorous picture as it walks along: all eight legs moving at a different time, joints moving up and down like the needles in a knitting machine, the small body with two eyes on turrets gazing around and all the while two glands on their sides putting out small puffs of a sulfur-like gas to protect them from their enemies."

So here are some pictures that we were able to get:

See the white hanging off? That is what was just a little circle at first, then looked like a tiny baby spider, and now is the size of what the daddy longleg once was. It was so cool to see it grow! Sorry if you guys don't like spiders (even though he isn't one). I don't like them much either. But now, I will probably never kill a daddy long leg. (I actually don't really remember ever killing one.. but I am sure I have. Now I am sure I won't. :P)