Cellar+Spiders

Habitat: As suggested by their name, this family of spiders is commonly found in moist basements, cellars and crawlspaces. They are found on every continent with the exception of Antarctica
 * Kingdom: || [|Animalia]  ||
 * Phylum: || [|Arthropoda]  ||
 * Class: || [|Arachnida]  ||
 * Order: || [|Araneae]  ||
 * Suborder: || [|Araneomorphae]  ||
 * Superfamily: || [|Pholcoidea]  ||
 * Family: || **Pholcidae** ||

Morphology: Generally very light colored, with extremely long and fragile legs (sometimes referred to as daddy-long-legs)

Biology: While they do not pose any real threat to humans they are considered a pest because of their unique web building habits. Most spiders will consume an old web before creating a new one. Spiders of this family however will continue to build new webs over old ones, which can build up to a very large mass of cobwebs over time. Their silk has no adhesive properties so the tangled mesh of old an new webs is what traps insects while they try to escape. Ways to prevent infestations of these spiders include lowering the humidity in your home since they prefer moisture as well as sealing up cracks that allow their food (other insects) to scurry into their webs.

Note: The term "daddy-long-legs" is also used to refer to harvestmen (shown below) which are arachnids but not spiders.

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