Mary and I went on a spider safari. In our house. It started out fine; we didn’t find much in the living spaces of our home, but then we decided to dive down into…the basement.
We found MONSTERS!
Oh, wait. That’s just one thing from my son’s old Dungeons & Dragons collection. What we actually found was Pholcus. Pholcus everywhere. We took a few photos before fleeing.
I’m not a big fan of the Pholcidae. They just hang around hugely, not moving much, but if any of the Theridiidae that I favor show up, they kill and eat them. So there they are.
Curiously, when I checked out our basement in August, there was nothing but dead husks and old cobwebs. They’re going through a population explosion right now.
brightmoon says
Oh …..those . I had such a big population of them on the ceiling in my old apartment bathroom that the ceiling was covered . I’m surprised I never noticed them until there were at least 40 of them . Picture me screaming and running tripping over my pants legs which were wrapped around my legs because of course I was on the toilet when I looked up . I’m definitely not a spider fan
WMDKitty -- Survivor says
“Eye SEE you!”
WMDKitty -- Survivor says
Pholcidae are one of the few I like. They’re chill.
leovigild says
Maybe you ought to hold a Pholcus group.
Silentbob says
We know them as the Daddy Long Legs, which is cute. Almost every kid in Australia is familiar with the Daddy Long Legs.
robertbaden says
I’ve always know harvestmen as daddy long legs. These look like actual spiders.
robertbaden says
Hmm. Apparently both are known as daddy long legs.
Jazzlet says
robertbaden
and in the UK daddylonglegs are different again being a kind of crane fly so an insect rather than an arachnid https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/flies/daddy-longlegs
brightmoon says
I always knew daddy long legs as crane flies too and I live in New York. Butkids mostly called crane flies giant mosquitoes. Harvestmen were also daddy long legs