The markings are variable, and individuals may be more or less dark vs. This spider, like the marbled cellar spider, has intricate brown markings on the abdomen. They eat just about anything caught in their webs, including wasps, large jumping spiders, dragonflies, and beetles. As long as there is plenty of prey, the spiders seem to multiply to fill every available bit of real estate. There are sometimes hundreds, from very young to large adults, males and females, and they live in close proximity to each other. The spiders might hang in the webs or rest on the web-covered substrate, making them easy to observe and photograph. On certain walls, the webs completely cover all surfaces from floor to ceiling. A great place for observing these spiders is in some of the buildings at Hornsby Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant, on the east side of Austin. Not found in a lot of places, when it does occur in sheds, garages or other outbuildings, it can be overwhelmingly numerous. While its body may be only 5-6 mm long, the legs might span 80 mm. The largest species I've found here is Crossopriza lyoni, another introduced arachnid. It vibrates its web so fast that the spider, bouncing back and forth, actually seems to disappear! While it is quite interesting to see, it is a pain when trying to photograph these little creatures. The marbled cellar spider also has a nifty trick it uses when feeling intimidated. This could be a way to confuse predators. When viewed in the shadows, the body and legs almost disappear but the white markings stand out as random dashes. The knees of this and most other pholcids that I've found have white marks. This species has a rather long and cylindrical body, complex brown and white markings and a black belly. There were sometimes several individuals all inhabiting one big web, which was probably just their individual webs running into each other. I 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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