Adult male short-bodied cellar spiders have a body length of about 1/16” (1.6 mm) with front legs about 3/8” (9.5 mm) long.
Daddy long legs aren’t spiders, they don’t produce venom, and although they can bite. This myth is false on quite a few counts. There is a common myth that daddy long legs are the most venomous spider in the world but their fangs are too short to break the skin. Adult female short-bodied cellar spiders have a body length of about 1/16” (2 mm) with front legs about 5/16” (8.5 mm) long. Neither daddy long legs or cellar spiders are dangerous to humans or pets. It is also known as the skull spider, since its cephalothorax is said to resemble a human skull. On the other hand, short-bodied cellar spiders have much shorter bodies as their name implies. Pholcus phalangioides, commonly known as the cosmopolitan cellar spider, long-bodied cellar spider or one of various types called a daddy long-legs spider, is a spider of the family Pholcidae. As such, the “daddy longlegs” nickname also applies to harvestmen, but, by contrast, these arachnids have oval bodies that are more reddish in color compared to cellar spiders. Long-bodied cellar spiders are also similar in appearance to harvestmen-which are arachnids, but technically not spiders-given their equally noticeable, lengthier legs. Web Structure: Daddy long legs have irregular, cobweb-like webs, while cellar spiders build messy, tangle-like webs. Adult male long-bodied cellar spiders have a body length of about ¼” (6 mm). The female short-bodied cellar spider has a 1/16 inch long body with legs extending about 5/16 inch. They have a cylindrical abdomen that is about three times longer than it is wide.Īdult female long-bodied cellar spiders have a body length of about ¼-5/16” (7-8 mm) with front legs about 1 ¾-1 15/16” (45-50 mm) long. The female long-bodied cellar spider is approximately 1/4-5/16 inch long with legs extending another 2 inches. Cellar spiders also have eight eyes that are arranged into two widely-spaced lateral groups of three each and two eyes in between. Because of this, you might know cellar spiders by the nickname daddy longlegs. Image: Thomas MesaglioCC BY-NC 4. However, theirs are very elongated and thin compared to other spiders. Daddy-long-legs Spider Scientific name:Pholcusphalangioides Dr Mike Gray Updated 25/07/22 Read time 2 minutes Male Pholcus phalangioides.
Like all arachnids, cellar spiders have eight legs. All cellar spiders have oval-shaped bodies that range in color from pale yellowish to light brown or gray.