Good Morning Lowcountry

Tribal cultures

Members of the Wassamasaw tribe of Varnertown, who are descended from the Edisto and Etiwan coastal American Indian tribes, will talk about their customs and culture tonight at 6:30 at the Edisto Interpretive Center on Edisto Island.

The talk will be preceded by a walk to Spanish Mount, a 4,000-year-old Indian shell midden just off Edisto. The walk is at 5:30 p.m.

The program is free, but there aren't many seats left, so make a reservation. Call 953-9354 or e-mail Kim Counts, coordinator of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources' public events series, at CountsK@dnr.sc.gov.

On Oct. 6, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., American Indians from all over South Carolina will participate in the S.C. Native American Indian Sacred Music Concert and Statewide Gospel Sing at Charleston Southern University's Lightsey Chapel.

Performers include Little Salkehatchie Drum, Edisto River Drum, the Leach Sisters, Santee Indian Todd Singers, Keepers of the Word music ministries, Etiwan Singers, The Johnsons and the Reedy River Singers. Special guests are Tuscarora Indian singer Pura Fe and Will Moreau of Oconee County. Admission to the festival is $5.

Name confusion?

College of Charleston professor emeritus Chip Biernbaum says GMLc has maligned the gentle daddy longlegs. But there is some confusion about what a daddy longlegs might be. Many sources say we use "daddy" to describe the harvestman, the crane fly (both arthropods) and the spider Pholcus phalangioides, also called the long-legged cellar spider. GMLc was thinking of the spider. We've never known it to be a biter though.

"Dear GMLc," Biernbaum e-mailed us. "Once again, our poor daddy longlegs are misunderstood. During my three decades-plus years of teaching about invertebrates, these gentle animals were burdened with the most consistently expressed urban myth — that they had a venom more poisonous than that of any spider but were incapable of biting — so they didn't pose a threat.

"You mention in your 12 September piece that, 'Daddy longlegs also will bite (although GMLc used to play with them, and they never bit us), but its venom is not strong enough to produce more than a small sting.'

"Both of these beliefs are untrue.

"Unlike spiders, daddy longlegs (which aren't spiders) have no venom. They also lack the fangs found in all spiders that inject the venom into prey; therefore, they cannot bite. If you were to look at a daddy longlegs with a magnifying glass, you would see that, instead of fangs, these animals possess minute copies of crab claws that are used while consuming very small arthropods.

"In lieu of a protective venom, the slowly-moving daddy longlegs have 'stink glands' that secrete a foul-smelling (and likely foul-tasting) chemical that deters potential predators. Your readers can sense this capability if they carry around a daddy longlegs in their hand for several minutes (carry it gently — the legs easily sever, a mechanism used to escape from predators) and then smell their hand. These animals don't bite and have no poison — they are gentle, harmless creatures that just happen to stink a bit."

GMLc
Write gmlc@postandcourier.com. Call 937-5564. Find the blog at gmlc.typepad.com.