Bug Identifier
Cellar Spider
Community identification

Cellar Spider

Family Pholcidae

Order & Family
Order Araneae, Family Pholcidae
Size
Body length 2 to 10 mm; legs can be up to 50 mm (approx. 2 inches) long.
See this bug in the Encyclopedia

Natural Habitat

Found in dark, damp environments such as cellars, basements, crawl spaces, garages, and caves. They frequently inhabit the upper corners of rooms and hallways.

Diet & Feeding

Primarily insects and other spiders. They are known to hunt and eat larger spiders, including house spiders and sometimes even black widows.

Behavior Patterns

They build messy, irregular tangled webs. When disturbed or threatened, they vibrate rapidly in their webs to become a blur, a behavior known as 'spinning' to confuse predators.

Risks & Benefits

They are harmless to humans; their venom is not considered medically significant and they rarely bite. They are highly beneficial for pest control, acting as natural predators for mosquitoes, flies, and other spiders.