The spiders and their webs are usually found in dark and damp places, such as cellars, basements, and crawl spaces. There are about 20 species of cellar spiders in the United States and Canada. Long-bodied cellar spiders are commonly referred to as “daddy-long-legs” because of their very long, thin legs and as their name implies are found in dark and damp places. Shape: Long skinny legs with a small body Another PDF article discusses ”Food Level and Life History Characteristics in a Pholcid Spider ( Holocnemus pluchei)” in the journal Psyche.Long-Bodied Cellar Spiders PHOLCUS PHALANGIOIDESĬolor: Pale Yellow to light brown or gray There is a PDF file available of the article ”Contests Over Prey by Group-Living Pholcids ( Holocnemus pluchei)” in the Journal of Arachnology. Austin Bug has a great article discussing common pholcid spiders of the Austin, Texas area, including the Marbled Cellar Spider. You want even more information and images? Some fantastic close-ups of this species can be found at the EuroSpiders and Spider Pharm websites. According to this article, the species produces arginine kinase, a newly-described asthma-inducing allergen. While this species is not regarded as dangerously venomous to people or pets in terms of the virulence of its venom, it has recently been discovered to have allergenic properties. The body length of mature female Holocnemus pluchei spiders is only 6-8 millimeters (males 5-7 mm, see image above), but their long, sprawling legs make them appear much larger. Not many enemies of these spiders want to pursue them among the botanical equivalent of barbed wire. At the Tucson Botanical Gardens I find a favorite place for this species to build its webs is among the leathery, spine-studded leaves of agave plants. The primary criterion seems to be that the spiders do need shade from the unrelenting sun. Nearly any building overhang or dense tangle of vegetation will do for a web location. The spiders do compete over prey items, but skirmishes are rarely protracted. Elizabeth Jakob of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) has found that up to fifteen individual spiders may share a communal web at any one time, with “membership” changing periodically. This is rarely the case, though, and many specimens will together form nearly contiguous webs that stretch far and wide. The webs of Holocnemus are irregular but decidedly dome-like, at least when one individual spider is off by itself. I find this species to be far more common outdoors than I do indoors here in southern Arizona. distribution of the Marbled Cellar Spider ranges east to at least central Texas, and north to southern Oregon. Because this species closely resembles the common Long-bodied Cellar Spider, Pholcus phalangioides, it is possible that it became established prior to 1974. The earliest known record in North America comes from Sutter County, California in 1974. The Marbled Cellar spider is actually native to the Mediterranean region of Europe. However, this is not true of the Marbled Cellar Spider, Holocnemus pluchei. Indeed, many members of the family Pholcidae do frequent such situations. Cellar spiders are named for their habit of building their webs in cool, dark places such as basements, old mine shafts, wells and the like.
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