CELLAR SPIDER Pholcus phalangioides

Cellar spiders live only in the safety of human homes: attics, cellars, garages and messy rooms where they can hang upside down in webs. Cellar spiders have gray-brown bodies that are about half an inch long. They have very long, skinny legs. Many times, cellar spiders are confused with Daddy Longlegs. Daddy Longlegs are usually not seen in Southern California. Daddy Longlegs are really not spiders. Their bodies are oval shaped. A true spider's body has two parts.

Cellar spiders do not hurt people, but like all spiders, they are predators and carnivores. They will eat almost any kind of insect or bug. They will eat moths, mosquitoes, flies, or beetles that accidentally walk into the spider's web. The cellar spider will wrap an insect in a lot of spider silk and suck the bug dry. When the spider is finished, it will cut the insects loose, letting them fall to the ground making a pile of dead, dry, bug bodies.

Cellars spiders are good at finding secret places to live in. These spiders are not like most spiders who like to live alone. The cellar spider likes to live close to its mate. Male and female will often live next door to each other. The female will wrap her eggs in a see-through sack that she keeps in her mouth for safety. The babies will hatch after several weeks.

Enemies of the cellar spider are birds, wasps and people. Cellar spiders like to spin spider silk. The spider's legs are so thin that people can hardly tell the difference between the legs and the web. Cellar spiders will twist their bodies back and forth so fast that their bodies become blurred. This makes them hard to see. If they accidentally fall from the web, they run in a wobbly fashion, like a drunk, so that they cannot be seen easily.