Cellar Spiders

[bugmankeith]

I am finding very,very tiny,white spiders with long legs in my basement. I'm assuming they are cellar spiders, but all pictures I looked at of this species have spiders with grayish abdomens and legs, and they look bigger too. You think all the ones i'm finding are spiderlings? They dont spin violently on their web if you blow on them, but instead bob up and down??? They are preying on house spider hatchlings right not, and gnats, but never seem to grow?

 

[Stylopidae]

I am finding very,very tiny,white spiders with long legs in my basement. I'm assuming they are cellar spiders, but all pictures I looked at of this species have spiders with grayish abdomens and legs, and they look bigger too. You think all the ones i'm finding are spiderlings? They dont spin violently on their web if you blow on them, but instead bob up and down??? They are preying on house spider hatchlings right not, and gnats, but never seem to grow?

Sound like phlocids to me...

Too small for pics?

 

[bugmankeith]

I tried, all you see is a white dot. If you think its them, mabye im seeing all spiderlings? I know adult females carry eggs in their mouth, and I dont see any of that. In just 5 minutes I found 10 of them, they are very abundant and run fast.

Has anyone tried raising them, to see how big they get?

 

[Stylopidae]

I tried, all you see is a white dot. If you think its them, mabye im seeing all spiderlings? I know adult females carry eggs in their mouth, and I dont see any of that. In just 5 minutes I found 10 of them, they are very abundant and run fast.

Has anyone tried raising them, to see how big they get?

Sounds like slings indeed

Don't know too much about phlocids...they're the only bugs I hate with a passion

 

[bugmankeith]

I think they would be awesome if they got tarantula size, people would have nightmares about the "giant daddy longlegs",LOL.

 

[Bayushi]

our basement is nothing but one huge colony of them. the biggest ones i have seen have a body the size of a dried split pea and a legspan of around 2 inches

 

[dtknow]

A giant pholcid would be awesome.

 

[bugmankeith]

So moslty their all leg I guess. Mine have the body size of a strawberry seed, they have growing to do...

 

[cacoseraph]

in Southern CA we get a species that has a legspan of about 4-5" with fairly large (relatively) bodies. they are one of my favorite spiders

 

[Stylopidae]

in Southern CA we get a species that has a legspan of about 4-5" with fairly large (relatively) bodies. they are one of my favorite spiders

Send a pic...that does sound cool.

 

[bugmankeith]

Could it be a lampshade spider?

 

[cacoseraph]

Send a pic...that does sound cool.

no camera, atm. i'll see what i can do, though

Could it be a lampshade spider?

holy chrome, i might need to look into those lampshade spiders some more. at least one species appears to be in range, and some of the pics i can find are not too far from what my memory of the biggest of the "super daddy long legs spiders" i've seen are. that would be sweet if they were! Hypochilus petrunkevitchi and H. bernardino are in the county i live in. I only knew about those crazy "two-tail spiders" in mexico... dang, this has got me excited!

rats, it looks like all the Hypochilus make a lampshade web and then rest on the substrate. the big girls i've seen rest in their webs... probably just big ol' Pholcus

 

[cacoseraph]

ah, i think the very large "daddy long legs spiders" i was refering to are
Holocnemus pluchei , aka "marbled cellar spider"

http://images.google.com/images?q=Holocnemus+pluchei+&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

they are supposed to make a web similar to a P. phalangoides but make a noticeable filmy dome

 

[bugmankeith]

Yeah mabye, they do get big.

 

[Cigarman]

Saw something like that in my bathroom but more skinny in the abdomen. It had long legs as well. When I touched a leg with my toothbrush handle, it shook its web like it was having a temper tantrum. Sat there and went at it for like 30 seconds like a maniac. Then it slowed down and relaxed. I guess this is to facilitate trapping food. Funny to watch tho.