Daddy long-legs spider facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Pholcus phalangioides |
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| Female with egg sac | |
| Scientific classification | |
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Pholcidae
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Pholcus
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P. phalangioides
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| Pholcus phalangioides |
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The Daddy-Long-Legs Spider (Pholcus phalangioides) is a spider of the family Pholcidae. Its legs are about 5 or 6 times the length of its body. It is often confused with the daddy long-legs, a member of the Opiliones, which are not true (real) spiders. P. phalangioides has the habit of shaking the web violently when disturbed. This is probably to blur the vision of a predator. Because it is often found on the ceilings of rooms, caves or cellars, it is also called cellar spider. They can easily catch and eat hairy house spiders, mosquitoes, and other insects. When food is scarce, they will prey on their own kind. Because they originally came from the tropics, these spiders do not seem to be aware of seasonal changes and breed at any time of the year.
The female holds 20 to 30 eggs in her jaws. Spiderlings are transparent with short legs and change their skin about 5 or 6 times as they grow.
Females have a body length of about 9mm, males are slightly smaller.
Crossopriza lyoni and Physocyclus globosis are spiders with a very similar appearance.
Appearance
Pholcids are fragile arachnids, 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. Spermophora has a small globose abdomen and its eyes are arranged in two groups of three and no median eyes. Pholcids are gray to brown with banding or chevron markings. The shape of the Pholcus and Smeringopus's body resembles that of a peanut. The cellar spiders torso is thin and doesn't have a fixed colour. It can be clear, clear brown, brown or gray.
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.
Behavior
Trapping
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.
Diet
Certain species of these seemingly benign spiders invade webs of other spiders and eat the host, the eggs, or the prey. In some cases the spider vibrates the web of other spiders, mimicking the struggle of trapped prey to lure the host of the web closer. Pholcids are natural predators of the Tegenaria species, and are known to attack and eat redback spiders, huntsman spiders and house spiders. It is this competition that helps keep Tegenaria populations in check, which may be advantageous to humans who live in regions with dense hobo spider populations.
Gait
Pholcus phalangioides often uses an alternating tetrapod gait (first right leg, then second left leg, then third right leg, etc.), which is commonly found in many spider species. However, frequent variations from this pattern have been documented during observations of the spiders’ movements.
Trivia
- This is the only spider species described by Swiss painter and entomologist Johann Kaspar Füssli.
- Some spiders, including P. phalangioides, have the ability to completely suck out a mosquito from the tip of one of its legs, although this may take up to twelve hours.
Images for kids
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Artema nephilit
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Two Crossopriza lyoni. The bottom one is male. The female is clutching her egg bundle (magnified).
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A marbled cellar spider (Holocnemus pluchei) carrying prey.
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Smeringopus pallidus female with egg sac.
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Male shortbodied cellar spider (Spermophora senoculata) from the United States
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Uthina atrigularis
See also
In Spanish: Pholcidae para niños
