IANA zoologist. But dll’s are arachnids, not insects. This means that, unlike insects, they have lungs(book lungs to be specific). While insects IIRC breathe through their exoskeleton. Since a bigger organism needs a thicker exoskeleton, and it’s more difficult to breathe through a thicker exoskeleton, insects are more limited in size. Arachnids are still limited by the other things you mentioned.
Matchka I agree with the others. I’ve heard that seniors in the air force send the new guys on errands to retrieve a bucket of prop wash.
Main Entry: in·sect
Pronunciation: 'in-"sekt
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin insectum, from neuter of insectus, past participle of insecare to cut into, from in- + secare to cut – more at SAW
Date: 1601
**1 a : any of numerous small invertebrate animals (as spiders or centipedes) that are more or less obviously segmented **b : any of a class (Insecta) of arthropods (as bugs or bees) with well-defined head, thorax, and abdomen, only three pairs of legs, and typically one or two pairs of wings
2 : a trivial or contemptible person
I know what you meant, and while I would refer to (true) insects and arachnids both as “bugs,” I wouldn’t refer to an arachnid as an “insect,” the older definition–which is still listed first–includes them. Similar confusion occurs with the term “carnivore” which can mean “meat eater” or “member of the order Carnivora.” Not all meat eaters are members of that order, and not all members of that order are meat eaters.
Now if you gather up a bunch of DLL and squish them into a pot and add the eye of newt and a bat heart and boil for a while, with your blowgun darts ready to be dipped when the mixture turns green…
I’m not sure how relevent this is, and, I’m not an expert, but I think the biggest problem you’re likely to run into with very large DLLs is running out of memory. But nowadays, you’d probably need the mother of all DLLs for this to happen.
And, of course, if you really wanted to be nitpicky, you could point out that “bug” properly refers only to a particular order of insects, with beetle-like hard forwings, but which don’t meet in a smooth line on the back like beetles. But of course, nobody on the SDMB would ever be that nitpicky.
If you want a good general term for insects, spiders, worms and the like, I suggest “creepy-crawlies”, a technical term which traces its lineage back to the Bible itself.
DocCathode and Earl, I didn’t know that DLLs had book lungs. (Thinking back on it, I should have: Arachnids have book lungs, insects have spiracles. I knew that, just not at the moment. ;))
Lucretia: Interesting. Perhaps they can bite, unless you misidentified it in your youth and obvious state of panic.
hammerbach: Nah, it’s a logical NOT on gender. (It turns a 1 into a 0 and vice-versa.)
Nope, definitely didn’t misidentify. I grew up in quite a rural area, and was quite familiar with DLLs, and knew one when I saw it. And before my attacker was smushed, my father saw it too, and also quite clearly remembers it being a DLL.
I dunno about the rest of you, but when it comes to creepies, crawlies and critters, just because there is no reason to think it would be true, to me means that there is no reason to think it would be untrue. Benefit of the doubt goes to the little bastard that can bite me.
Spent too much time in the desert where damn near everything that crawled was poisonous. Plus I’m not too fond (read: scared of) spiders in general even though I let them go. I hate em, but they eat things I hate even more.
I think this sums it all up. DDl do not have fangs or venom, eat plants and decaying matter. Dll Spider has fangs and venom and eats other critters. Like others have said and according to multiple universities, there is no documentation available to show that the DLL spider can harm humans in any way (Short of a heart attack as they are ungly little guys). http://spiders.ucr.edu/daddylonglegs.html
