Cellar Spider (often called Daddy Longlegs)
Scientific Name: Pholcus phalangioides
Order & Family: Araneae (Order), Pholcidae (Family)
Size: Body length is commonly 6-9 mm, but their extremely long, spindly legs can span up to 50 mm (2 inches) in diameter.
Natural Habitat
Typically found indoors in dark, quiet areas like basements, cellars, attics, corners of ceilings, and garages. They prefer environments with stable temperatures.
Diet & Feeding
Carnivorous; they feed on various insects and other spiders, often preying on pests like flies, mosquitoes, and ants. They are known to invade webs of other spiders to eat the host.
Behavior Patterns
They build messy, irregular webs often located in corners. When threatened, a unique behavior is to vibrate or spin rapidly in their web, making them difficult for predators to see or catch. They are solitary but often tolerate other cellar spiders nearby.
Risks & Benefits
Benefits: Excellent at pest control, consuming household nuisance insects and even dangerous spiders like Black Widows. Risks: Harmless to humans; while they possess venom, their fangs are generally too small and weak to puncture human skin effectively, and the venom is not medically significant.
Identified on: 2/20/2026