Long-bodied cellar spider
Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin, 1775)
Status not recordedspiders
The long-bodied cellar spider (Pholcus phalangioides) is a spider, an arachnid in the family Pholcidae and the genus Pholcus. It is also called Cobweb spider, Daddy long legs and Longbodied cellar spider.
Quick facts about the long-bodied cellar spider
Checklists record it in Australia, Brazil, Chile, France, Greece and Madagascar.
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- 7 mm – 1 cmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- human_modified, rockysrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 6 countriessrc for Countries on record
How big is the long-bodied cellar spider?
Photos of the long-bodied cellar spider
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the long-bodied cellar spider live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The long-bodied cellar spider is listed for 6 countries.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: WSC (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the long-bodied cellar spider?
Pholcus phalangioides, commonly known as the cosmopolitan cellar spider, long-bodied cellar spider, or one of various types called a daddy long-legs spider, is a spider of the family Pholcidae. It was first described in 1775 by the Swiss entomologist Johann Kaspar Füssli (his surname is also spelled Fuesslin) as Aranea phalangoides. Its common name of "daddy long-legs" should not be confused with a different arachnid group with the same common name, the harvestman (Opiliones), or the crane flies of the superfamily Tipuloidea.
Females have a body length of about 8 mm while males tend to be slightly smaller. The length of the spider's legs are on average 5 or 6 times the length of its body. Pholcus phalangioides has a habit of living on the ceilings of rooms, caves, garages or cellars.
This spider species is considered beneficial in parts of the world because it preys on other spiders, including species considered dangerous such as redback spiders. Pholcus phalangioides is known to be harmless to humans and a potential for the medicinal use of their silk has been reported.
From the Wikipedia article “Pholcus phalangioides” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pholcus_phalangioides&oldid=1376341564), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the long-bodied cellar spider sound like?
Is the long-bodied cellar spider endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the long-bodied cellar spider classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classArachnida
- orderAraneae
- familyPholcidae
- genusPholcus
- SpeciesPholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin, 1775)
Synonyms Aranea meticulosa, Aranea phalangioides, Aranea phalangoides, Pholcophora phalangioides, Pholcus americanus, Pholcus atlanticus, Pholcus communis, Pholcus dubiomaculatus, Pholcus lambertoni, Pholcus litoralis, Pholcus meticulosus, Pholcus nemastomoides, Pholcus phalangoidaes, Pholcus phalangoides
Other names and names in other languages (17)
- Cobweb spiderEnglish
- Daddy long legsEnglish
- Longbodied cellar spiderEnglish
- araña patudaAsturian
- MejeredderkopDanish
- StankelbensedderkopDanish
- Große ZitterspinneGerman
- ZitterspinneGerman
- isovaaksikkiFinnish
- TorvatrøllFaroese
- Pholque phalangisteFrench
- イエユウレイグモJapanese
- 집유령거미Korean
- storlangbeinedderkoppNorwegian Bokmål
- Grote trilspinDutch
- större dallerspindelSwedish
- 室內幽靈蛛Chinese
Relatives of the long-bodied cellar spider
Other species in the same genus Pholcus.
CompareLong-bodied cellar spider vs Manuel's cellar spiderLong-bodied cellar spider vs Pholcus abaLong-bodied cellar spider vs Pholcus abstrususLong-bodied cellar spider vs Pholcus acutulus
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the long-bodied cellar spider?
The long-bodied cellar spider is a spider, an arachnid of the order Araneae and the family Pholcidae.
What is the scientific name of the long-bodied cellar spider?
Its scientific name is Pholcus phalangioides, placed in the genus Pholcus.
Who named Pholcus phalangioides?
The species name is credited to (Fuesslin, 1775).
What other names does the long-bodied cellar spider have?
It is also called Cobweb spider, Daddy long legs and Longbodied cellar spider.
Which countries is the long-bodied cellar spider recorded in?
Checklists record it in Australia, Brazil, Chile, France, Greece and Madagascar.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Long-bodied cellar spider (Pholcus phalangioides). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/long-bodied-cellar-spider
“Long-bodied cellar spider (Pholcus phalangioides).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/long-bodied-cellar-spider.
@misc{long_bodied_cellar_spider_2026,
title = {Long-bodied cellar spider (Pholcus phalangioides)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/long-bodied-cellar-spider},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}