It's Not a Spider!

Genesis 1:25
“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

What has eight legs, fangs, ridges on its underside, and is one of the “creeping things” that God created? No, it’s not a spider, it’s a daddy-long-legs.

More than just the ridges on its underside have set the daddy-long-legs apart from the spiders. Spiders have two body sections, while the daddy-long-legs have only one. Under a microscope, you would find that while spider fangs have two sections, the fangs of a daddy-long-legs have three sections.

God has also given the daddy-long-legs some very special abilities to protect itself. When it is attacked, it is most likely to be grabbed by one of its long legs, but its legs detach quite easily. A young daddy-long-legs will be able to re-grow the missing leg, while still getting around quite easily on the other seven. It has very good eyesight, and those eyes are placed on top of its body so that it can better see attackers. Most attacks are likely to come from above. The daddy-long-legs can also spray a nasty-smelling gas to protect itself.

God made three varieties of daddy-long-legs and gave this insect the important job of cleaning the forest floor of dead insects and decaying vegetation. Death and decay are the result of sin, so God must have anticipated Adam’s sin and created the daddy-long-legs, one of the creeping things, just before He created Adam.

Notes: Joanne E. DeJonge, Bats & Bugs & Snakes & Slugs (Baker Book House), pp. 7-9.
Photo: Courtesy of Charlesjsharp. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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