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Cellar spider

Pholcus phalangioides

Description:

The cellar spider or daddy longlegs, also known as the skull spider due to its cephalothorax looking like a human skull, is a spider of the family Pholcidae. Females have a body length of about 9 mm; males are slightly smaller. Its legs are about 5 or 6 times the length of its body (reaching up to 7 cm of leg span in females). Its habit of living on the ceilings of rooms, caves, garages or cellars gives rise to one of its common names. They are considered beneficial in some parts of the world because they kill and eat other spiders, including species that are venomous to humans such as hobo and redback spiders.

Notes:

Found this guy hanging out in our stairwell, popped him in a yoghurt pot for his photo shoot & then returned him to his corner!

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4 Comments

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

ID updated. This one must be a juvenile.

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

Maybe we should breed them for export!

MarthaHagerFarris
MarthaHagerFarris 12 years ago

Looks like the twin to my cellar spider..

KarenL
KarenL 12 years ago

I'm submitting this to bugguide for identification.

KarenL
Spotted by
KarenL

Tennessee, USA

Spotted on Jan 17, 2012
Submitted on Jan 17, 2012

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