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Cellar spider

Pholcidae sp.

Description:

Pholcids are fragile spiders, the body being 2–10 mm in length with legs which may be up to 50 mm long. Pholcus and Smeringopus have cylindrical abdomens and the eyes are arranged in two lateral groups of three and two smaller median contiguous eyes. Eight and six eyes both occur in this family. Pholcids are gray to brown with banding or chevron markings. The shape of the Pholcus and Smeringopus's body resembles that of a peanut shell. The web has no adhesive properties but the irregular structure traps insects, making escape difficult. The spider quickly envelops its prey with silk and then inflicts the fatal bite. The prey may be eaten immediately or stored for later. When the spider is threatened by a touch to the web or when too large a prey becomes entangled, the spider vibrates rapidly in a gyrating motion in its web and becomes blurred and difficult to focus on. For this reason pholcids have sometimes been called "vibrating spiders", although they are not the only species to exhibit this behaviour.

Habitat:

Near flowering gardens. Pholcids are found in every continent in the world besides Antarctica where it is too cold.

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2 Comments

Wild Things
Wild Things 11 years ago

Thanks a lot Goody!

Aaron_G
Aaron_G 11 years ago

Looks like something in Pholcidae to me. Nice spotting!

Wild Things
Spotted by
Wild Things

Maharashtra, India

Spotted on May 23, 2012
Submitted on May 23, 2012

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