Daddy long-legs spider

spider and not a harvestman. Daddy longlegs is a name that is used for several unrelated arthropods with extremely long and thin legs, including these spiders, the harvestmen and tipulid crane flies.

These spiders are web weavers. They make either sheet webs or irregular webs, and they hang inverted from them. Many species are fond of making their webs in cellars or basements. They may draw one's attention to them by bobbing rhythmically when their webs have been disturbed slightly, and for this reason have sometimes been called vibrating spiders. Doing so probably increases their chances of capturing insects that have just brushed their web and are still hovering nearby. They comprise the Pholcidae family, in the suborder Araneomorpha.

There is an urban legend stating that this family of spider is extremely venomous to humans. Although there is no conclusive proof of this, the venom of the Pholcidae has been found to cause severe neurological problems in lab mice. In 2001/2, Discovery Channel's Mythbusters set out to test this myth and, on mice tests, Blackwidow venom was significantly more toxic. One of the show's hosts was bitten, and the bite produced little more then a mild shortlived burning sensation.