![]() Their webs are irregular, messy but very small, tending to cling to a wall or other horizontal surface. Mother and babies - Luis Fernández García via Wikipedia The young will molt six times before they reach maturity Round raised eyes clustered on both sides of the head as well asįemale with egg case - Olei CC- WikimediaĪ female produces 20-30 eggs which she will patiently carry around in her pedipalps until the young hatch. Thorax they are also commonly called a "skull spider." Another defining characteristic of various spider species is the Skull shaped head with two sets of three round eyes tightly clustered together - REK In their original lands they reproduce annually in the warm season while in our house it is always the season to reproduce and life is good. They do not tolerate cold but have found their niche in warm human habitats. They originated in the sub-tropics but are now found on every continent, probably traveling along with the commerce of humans. Both have eight legs typical of the Arachnids. Long-bodied spiders have three distinct body parts (head, thorax and abdomen) while the Opiliones (harvestmen) have the head and thorax fused into one small part frequently making their bodies appear oval. Crane flies have 6 legs like all insects and wings typical of all the Diptera (true flies). This common name is also applied to both harvestmen of the Opilione class and to crane flies which are sometimes mistaken for giant mosquitoes. Their "daddy long-legs" name is appropriate but can be confusing. "Daddy Longlegs" Crane Fly- Six legs of an insect - REK Their bodies are 5-8 mm long, (less than 1/3") and their leg are 8 times longer. They have a number of common names including daddy long-legs spider, granddaddy long-legs spider, carpenter spider, and vibrating spider. This is the Long-bodied Cellar Spider, Pholcus phalangioides, the most common of the Pholcidaeor cellar spiders. ![]() For the most part they just hang on a wall or slowly explore the tile floor, looking for tiny pests that we don't even know exist. After all they spend the rest of their lives sequestered in dark, damp places asking for nothing and bothering no one, unless it is a house guest too polite to mention them. The Marbled Cellar Spider ( Holocnemus pluchei) shows brown markings on the abdomen and there is a black stripe on the under side.After years of watching these leggy spiders crawl all over the bathroom in our creek house, I thought it was time to give them their day in the sun. There are few other smaller patches near the edges of the cephalothorax. The patch on the cephalothorax is much thinner than on Pholcus phalangioides. The sternum is dark grey with a white longitudinal stripe and three white spot on each side. There is a possible confusion with Pholcus opilionoides which is a smaller size (3 to 5.5 mm) and less linked to human buildings. The female carries the fertilized eggs (30 to 40) during 3 weeks in some kind of a silk bag. You can recognize males with their enlarged pedipalps looking like "boxing gloves". The pale coloured cephalothorax shows a dark central patch cut in two parts by a pale longitudinal line. The abdomen is cylindrical or more spherical depending of food availability and on females full of eggs. Longbodied Cellar spiders are also able to attack other much larger spiders like Tegeneria. Then, dried cocoons are detached from the web and fall down on the ground. They wrap them in a cocoon of silk before eating them. ![]() ![]() They catch many flying or crawling insects. They vibrate their webs and become almost invisible when they feel threatened. They can also walk down from their web to drink. Longbodied Cellar spiders need humidity, they prefer shadowed areas. The scientific name "pholcus" comes from a Greek word meaning "squinting" because of the location of the eyes which are grouped in two prominent clusters of three eyes plus two small eyes grouped in between. They spin messy, tangled and almost invisible webs. Longbodied Cellar spiders are very common inside buildings where they are protected against cold temperatures. Observation period: All year long for females, spring and summer for males. Females are generally slightly larger than males. Size: Body size: 8-10mm, the size of the legs is about 5.5 times the body size. Other names: Longbodied Cellar spider, Daddy Long-Legger, GrandLongbodied Cellar spider, Cellar spider or Vibrating spider. Scientific name: Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin, 1775) Longbodied Cellar Spider ( Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin, 1775)) Longbodied Cellar Spider (Pholcus phalangioides)
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