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Cellar spiders

Pholcidae

Description:

spiders, are a spider family in the suborder Araneomorphae. The family contains about 1500 species divided into about 80 genera. Some species, especially Pholcus phalangioides, are commonly called daddy long-legs spider, granddaddy long-legs spider, carpenter spider, daddy long-legger, or vibrating spider. Confusion often arises because the name "daddy long-legs" is also applied to two distantly related arthropod groups: the harvestmen (which are arachnids but not spiders), and crane flies (which are insects).

Habitat:

Pholcids are found in every continent in the world except Antarctica where it is too cold for them to survive. They hang inverted in messy, irregular, tangled webs. These webs are constructed in dark and damp recesses, such as: caves, under rocks and loose bark, abandoned mammal burrows, and undisturbed areas in buildings, such as cellars (hence the common name "cellar spider"). However, Pholcids are also quite commonly found in warm, dry places, such as household windows and attics.

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2 Comments

Scott Frazier
Scott Frazier 8 years ago

Moved to the arthropods category :-) Harvestmen, also called Daddy Longlegs, are not spiders, but they are close relatives.

atravis055
atravis055 8 years ago

This is an Eastern Harvestman, not a Cellar Spider.

Jenice Flores
Spotted by
Jenice Flores

Logan, Utah, USA

Spotted on Mar 20, 2016
Submitted on Apr 19, 2016

Spotted for Mission

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