Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
Upcoming Events

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29


Previous events


TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Pholcus opilionoides

Longbodied Cellar Spiders - Pholcus opilionoides - male - female Longbodied Cellar Spider - Pholcus opilionoides - male Pholcus opilionoides - female Pholcus opilionoides - female Cellar Spider? - Pholcus opilionoides Pholcus opilionoides--voucher image - Pholcus opilionoides - female Spider - Pholcus opilionoides Pholcus opilionoides ? - Pholcus opilionoides
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)
Class Arachnida (Arachnids)
Order Araneae (Spiders)
Infraorder Araneomorphae (True Spiders)
No Taxon (Synspermiata)
Family Pholcidae (Cellar Spiders)
Genus Pholcus
Species opilionoides (Pholcus opilionoides)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
(Schrank, 1781) See the World Spider Catalog.
Size
Body length (excluding legs) of adults: 3-5.5 mm (1)
Identification
Epigynum


It will be rare for BugGuide to get submissions of any of the ten endemic (native) Pholcus, so it will mostly only be the three (so far) introduced/non-native species that we will see and need to differentiate, thus here is a cheat sheet pertaining to those three in particular:

P. opilionoides can be separated from the others by the dark marks on the lateral border of their carapace. Pholcus manueli has two dark, vertical stripes on the clypeus (the space between the bottom row of eyes and the beginning of the chelicerae), while P. phalangioides & P. opilionoides do not. The dark medial mark on the carapace of P. manueli is more distinctly divided than the medial mark on P. phalangioides. P. phalangioides also gets bigger than the other two species, at least twice as large in some cases. Also, the eyes are much more closely grouped in P. manueli than in P. phalangioides; it's a subtle difference, but you can tell once you have seen a few.

    P. manueli       vs.         P. phalangioides         vs.     P. opilionoides
          
Range
Europe east to Azerbaijan.(2)
Sparingly introduced in North America where distribution is largely unknown (ChH)
See Also
Pholcus manueli is most similar, having similar dimensions and sternum pattern. Also see Pholcus phalangioides.
Works Cited
1. Collins Field Guide: Spiders of Britain & Northern Europe
Michael J. Roberts. 1996. Harper Collins, London, 383 pp.
2.Revision and cladistic analysis of Pholcus and closely related taxa (Araneae, Pholcidae)
Bernhard A. Huber. 2011. Bonner zoologische Monographien 58: 1-509.