The members of the Pholcidae family live in houses and buildings. They make their untidy webs in the corner of a wall or a ceiling. They are also often found in the basement or the cellars, thus being referred to by another common name as the cellar spiders. When they are disturbed or when they are under a threat of attack, they start vibrating in their web violently to scare off and discourage their enemy. Therefore, they are also known by yet another common name of vibrating spiders. The male spider has large palps.

It is said that the venom of this spider is one of the most poisonous. Since the fangs of these spiders are too small to penetrate the skin, it is not considered a dangerous spider. Many spiders use their venom to kill their prey but the poison of almost all of them is harmless to humans.

Apperance

The daddy-longlegs have a quite simple structure. Therefore they are classified in between the six eyed and the eight eyed spiders. The internal structure of the female sexual organ is identical to that of the six eyed spiders. The mating ritual of these spiders is also similar to that of the six eyed spiders.

The spider can be easily recognized by a small mass of body and its extremely long legs. They have four pairs of legs. The first pair of legs is five and half times the length of its body. The legs do not have any prickles but have long stiff hairs. The knee segment is much darker than the rest of the legs. Their venomous fangs are very small, too small to penetrate the human skin and even while catching a prey they are not used. Two of the eight eyes are very small. At the place of the heart (at the top of the abdomen) there is a dark spot. The spider must, as all spiders do, renew its skin.

Hunting

The daddy-longlegs have a special method of hunting. Their untidy web is used more as a place to stay than for catching prey. The spider hangs upside down in the web. If the web becomes too dirty, then it is abandoned and a new web is woven. Their poison jaws are far too small to hold a prey. They consume every insect like flies, ear worms, beetles and so on. The daddy long legs also put on their menu other spiders like the house spider, wolf spiders, jumping spiders and so on. In short, They can grab almost every insect in and around the house, even other daddy-longlegs! In this way these spiders regulate the population of insects and spiders in the house. The spider lives in the house the whole year. In winter, when there is hardly any insect left, the spider has to seek its prey among the next of kin.

Habit

In seasons when the general insect population is at its lowest, the spider has to move through the house on hunting expeditions. On such occasions, long legs of the spider prove their advantage. The spider starts looking for other webs and presents itself as prey. It ticks on the web with one of its long leg and before the alarmed spider in the web could start any plans of an attack, the daddy-longleg with the element of surprise on its side takes hold of the situation and overcomes the alarmed spider. If there are no hard times or the famines, the daddy-longleg does not consume other daddy-longlegs, but when hungry and faced with hard choices, they kill their own kind.