Longbodied Cellar Spider

Thursday, December 31, 2009

 

I found this spider in the bike cage today at work (movie).  It’s a long bodied cellar spider, Pholcus phalangioides.  It is also known as a daddy long-leg spider or a house spider.  It spun its web below a fluorescent light - a convenient place to catch the numerous mosquitoes, moths and other flying insects that are attracted to it.  These spiders spin a web that’s more irregular than other spiders - like orb-weaving spiders, for example.  Apparently the silk of this spider and related species in the family Pholcidae is not as sticky either.  There’s an urban legend that these spiders are the most venomous, deadly enough to kill a human.  This myth was busted on the show “Mythbusters” when one of the hosts (Adam) was bitten by one.  He reported a very mild sensation.  It’s a nice spider to share the bike cage with because there’s an unusually large number of mosquitoes.  They get stuck in the web and don’t bite me.