Talk:Pholcus phalangioides

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[edit] Merge required?

This article probably needs to be merged with Daddy long-legs spider (or vice versa, i.e. I prefer the scientific name because the common name is so confusing). Anbd it needs an entry in the disambiuguation page Daddy longlegs. Rocksong 05:32, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Whoever merged the two articles deleted a lot of information found in the entry for Daddy long-legs spider. For instance, I think it's already been well established that Pholcids can penetrate human skin, in fact almost every spider can, although the venom has no effect. This very information is confirmed almost word for word in the very link you provide to verify that P. phalangioides are harmless. And yet this article again erroneously "informs" the reader that pholcids cannot penetrate human skin. Secondly, the wording is extremely poor, for example; "This is probably to blur the vision of a predator" To blur the predator's vision? Or to make themselves harder to see? There's a huge difference. Thirdly, "daddly long-legs" is a blanket term applying to many pholcid spiders, since a few them look almost indentical except for the general shape of the abdomen. The article should begin by informing the reader that "Daddy long-legs spider" is a nickname usually refering to P. phalangioides. --Mad Max 03:12, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
No merging has been done yet. The old Daddy long-legs spider article has been renamed to Pholcidae. (Which is kind of confusing because Daddy long-legs spider is now a redirect to Pholcus phalangioides). If those two articles remain unmerged, some editing is required, so that the family-specific stuff is in Pholcidae and the species-specific stuff is here in Pholcus phalangioides. Rocksong 09:40, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Contradictory Sources

The "long description" link at http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/Spiders/Pholcidae/Pholcidae.htm states that: "Since the fangs of these spiders are too small to penetrate the skin, it is not considered a dangerous spider." This directly contradicts the article. Should the resource be removed? Stinkman 06:15, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Problem with the map of distribution.

I live in Perth in Western Australia, and we certainly get these spiders. But the map included would indicate that they only exist in the eastern states. Shouldn't this be fixed? Black-Velvet 12:02, 22 February 2008 (UTC)