What spider is this?

[bcolligan01]

Hello all!

A very newbie post here so I do hope you’ll excuse me.



What kind of spider is this? I was sat in my garden in the UK and this little fella walked up on me and I was just curious what kind of spider it is. I believe it is a baby either way but no idea what species and would love to know!

 

[Isaax Critterz]

That's not a spider. That's another type of arachnid known as a Pholcidae: or simply a daddy long legs.

 

[NMTs]

That's not a spider. That's another type of arachnid known as a Pholcidae: or simply a daddy long legs.

Close, but not likely a Pholcidae. Pholcidae have distinctly segmented prosoma and opisthosoma (head and abdomen), which makes them look like most spiders we're familiar with. You can't see that segmentation in this critter (even though they still have a prosoma and opisthosoma) which would indicate it is an Opilione, or harvestman. Still often called daddy longlegs, yes, but technically different from Pholcidae.

Opiliones - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ChaniLB520]

That’s the problem with common names. So many things are called daddy long legs. That one is definitely a harvestman/Order Opiliones (not a spider), rather than a Pholcidae/cellar spider (which are true spiders). I’ve heard that some people also call crane flies daddy long legs… I have never heard that one myself before. I only ever used the term for harvestmen growing up.