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Home / Nature - Animals / Invertebrates / Invertebrates - Summer / Invertebrates - June / Cellar spider or Daddy Longlegs (Pholcus phalangioides)
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Cellar spider or Daddy Longlegs (Pholcus phalangioides)

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A Cellar Spider with another spider wrapped in silk for a meal. This spider has legs 5-6 times its body size. The females body is about 9mm with a leg span reaching up tp 7cm, the male is slightly smaller. They will eat and kill other spiders. Originally a species of warmer climates spread by man, it likes the warmth of homes. Pholcus phalangioides will shaking its web violently when disturbed as a defence mechanism against predators. They make loose webs but can easily catch other spiders (including those much larger than itself, such as the house spider), as well as other insects. When food is scarce, they will prey on their own kind. Confusion often arises over one of its common names, because "daddy longlegs" is also used for the unrelated harvestman and the crane fly. Picture taken at Bedford on 3rd June 2012.

Added:
4th Jun 2012 by Diane Earl

Subjects:
Biology, Environmental Science

Key Stages:
Foundation, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 4+

Geocode: Bedford

Keywords:
arachnid spider

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