Pholcus phalangioides

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Pholcus phalangioides

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Family:	Pholcidae
Genus:	Pholcus
Species:	P. phalangioides

Binomial name

Pholcus phalangioides
Fuesslin, 1775

Female with egg sac

Pholcus phalangioides, the daddy-long-legs spider or cellar spider, is a spider of the family Pholcidae. Its legs are about 5 or 6 times the length of its body. Its habit of living on the ceilings of rooms, caves or cellars gives rise to one of its common names.

Confusion often arises because the name "daddy longlegs" is also applied to two other unrelated arthropods: the harvestman and the crane fly.

Pholcus phalangioides has the habit of shaking its web violently when disturbed. This is probably to blur the vision of a predator. 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 the 20 to 30 eggs in her pedipalps. Spiderlings are transparent with short legs and change their skin about 5 or 6 times as they mature.

Females have a body length of about 9 mm; males are slightly smaller.

[edit] Trivia

In Australian homes, they are beneficial because they kill the venomous Red-back spider.^[1]
According to lore, they are said to be the most venomous spider in the world, but because their fangs are unable to penetrate human skin, they are actually totally harmless. In fact, recent research has shown that pholcid venom is weak.^[2]
In the MythBusters episode "Daddy Long-Legs" it was proven that the spider's fangs could penetrate human skin but only a very mild burning feeling was felt for a few seconds^[3].
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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

^ Daddy Long Legs - Queensland Museum
^ Spider Myths - If it could only bite
^ "Buried in Concrete, Daddy—Longlegs, Jet Taxi", Mythbusters, Episode 13, Discovery Channel, Original airing: February 15, 2004 [1]