These spiders are the ones you often spot hanging out in the corners of your basement. Hey there, curious explorers Let’s shine a light on the Long-bodied Cellar Spider, also known as Pholcus phalangioides or commonly known as daddy-long-legs.
When food is scarce, cellar spiders have also been known to eat each other too. Long-bodied Cellar Spider aka Daddy Long Legs. Not only will you be removing the mess, but you will also be. This is a step you would be taking anyway since they make your house look messy, but it is also an important part of pest control. The female long-bodied cellar spider is approximately 1/4-5/16 inch long with legs extending another 2 inches. This particular spider feasts on small moths, flies, mosquitoes, and other insects and small pests. The first step to getting rid of cellar spiders is to grab a broom and physically remove the webs they have built-in your homes. The two more commonly seen species are the long-bodied and short-bodied cellar spiders. 80 genera (1,595 described species) worldwide and 13 genera (49 species total) in BugGuides range, as per The World Spider Catalog on January 17, 2017. Not only dwelling in these spaces, cellar spiders also nest in crawlspaces, closets, attics, rock piles and other environments that are both dark and offer plenty of humidity. Family Pholcidae (Cellar Spiders) Other Common Names. The daddy longlegs have a small, oval-shaped, tan, or grey body, surrounded by four pairs of legs that span up to 6 inches. They live primarily in basements and cellars, which is how they earned their name. Long-bodied cellar spiders are most famous for two things: their freakishly long and thin legs and their hilarious alternative moniker daddy longlegs. The long-bodied cellar spider, Pholcus phalangioides, is a very common find in basements throughout the world. Living for around two years on average, cellar spiders prefer to build their nests in close proximity of each other, creating web communities. Constructing loose and irregular shaped webs, cellar spiders hang upside down in them as they wait for their prey. Both species have medium-sized eyes, bodies up to 8 mm long, and a colour that is grey, light brown or pale yellow. There are nearly 2,000 species of Pholcidae distributed in the entire USA and also worldwide. Pholcus phalangioides has a brown patch on its pale carapace and a cream to pale brown, lightly patterned abdomen. Pholcidae is actually not a species but a family of spiders. Daddy-long-legs spiders are easily recognised by their extremely long, skinny legs and small body. Long-bodied cellar spiders have a 2-inch leg span while the short-bodied variant has a 1/2-inch leg span. However, it has become so common for each of these to be called Cellar Spiders, or Daddy Long-Legs, that it is now considered correct for all three. The web of a cellar spider is usually very messy, similar to the web of a cobweb spider. Generally speaking, there are two cellar spider species in Canada – long-bodied and short-bodied.