Cellar Spiders

Cellar Spider, Pholcus phalangioides eating a cricket.

Cellar spiders of the Pholcidae family are spiders that wait for prey to entangle in their web and are often confused for a brown recluse. They have a number of other common names including vibrating spider and daddy long-legs spider. They are most often referred to as cellar spiders due to their preference of habitat of dark, damp places such as in basements and crawl spaces. When these spiders feel threatened such as when large prey disturb their web, they start vibrating vigorously back and forth. While the reason for this is not specifically clear, current thought points to the spider being harder to focus on, and therefore, harder to catch. The most confusing of the common names, daddy long-legs, has been used for cellar spiders due to their long legs, but also to a non-spider arachnid of the Opiliones family, also known as harvestmen. Contrary to popular thought, neither of these specimens contain venom that is fatal to humans. Harvestmen do not possess venom nor even have a means of deliver, and cellar spiders have only mild venom that cannot even be effectively injected into humans.