3/29/2024 0 Comments Long bodied cellar spiderI found these spiders in loose, messy webs placed in corners, either along the concrete slab of our house or in the corners of our wooden privacy fence. I suspect some of these hitched a ride on potted plants or perhaps some lumber we bought. One of the introduced species that we've had around our house is the marbled cellar spider ( Holocnemus pluchei). There is an amusing urban legend that claims cellar spiders have the most potent poison of any arachnid, but their jaws are so tiny that they can never bite a person and so this cannot be proven one way or the other. That's good for them, since basements are not a standard feature on most houses in Texas. Here in Austin, the weather is usually mild enough that they can survive outside. This family is not particularly tolerant of cold and so always occurs inside buildings (especially cellars) in areas with freezing winter temperatures. The true daddy-longlegs, or harvestmen (order Opiliones), are not spiders at all, do not produce silk or have venom, and have only one body part, not two distinct sections like spiders. The name daddy-longlegs can be confusing, as there is another arachnid group commonly called that. I have found many more individuals of the non-native species, but they are only numerous in scattered areas, probably where conditions are optimum. Imported species are usually found hanging upside-down in messy webs in the corners of buildings, while native species might occur that way or be found under rocks in natural areas. They are all small-bodied (usually about 5 mm long) and very long-legged. Valerie's Austin Bug Collection: Spiders > Pholcidae (cellar spiders)ĪBC > H ome > SPIDERS > P holcidae (cellar spiders)Ĭellar spiders, also called daddy-longlegs spiders, are pretty easy to identify to family.
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