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.