Long story short, I have two daddy long leg spiders in my room. Why? We have house plants and occasionally small fruit flies would make their way into the bedroom and since I don’t condone senseless killing, I let the spiders have them for lunch. Such is the way of life. The best part is, and remember this next time you remove or kill a spider, it works! There is a definite decrease in the amount of unsavoury flying creatures. They stay in their corners and rarely move which suits me fine since I’m not big fans of them, I just tolerate them for the perks.
Originally there was just one, whom we fondly named Miss Annabelle. She was a bit of a sinister creature, partially because of how she sat with all legs claw-like and also because one time we were talking about how we could never truly know how intelligent she was and that night, she vanished for three days. Probably plotting my demise.
Now she is back and I have a second spider called Jaundice (the abdomen had a sickly yellow shine to it. Don’t ask…). I had thought them both girls but then one night, I came home to see Jaundice navigating through Annabelle’s web. Disturbingly, Jaundice (who I gathered was actually a he), started some bizarre action that looked a bit like a dance. He danced closer with plucking movements and when he was close enough, he started flicking her with what I thought looked like a mouth part. It could have been anything though.
After a few moments of body flicking, he snuggled up to Annabelle and at first I thought she was eating him. But several hours later, they were a foot away from each other. I reckon they were making babies.
I went and did some research and I now know that the daddy long legs spider belongs to the Pholcidae family which has 969 species within it. Three of these species can be found in uk. Jaundice was definitely a mature male as the mouth parts I saw were really called palps which were swollen and are used as sex organs. It made sense that Jaundice found Annabelle as it is the males who search for mates. He was lucky there was one in the same room.
There are no special courtship rituals and the male spiders tend to leave alive. If their attempt was successful, I should expect eggs soon which would hatch 3 weeks after being laid. Mummy spider carries these around with her. If I find she has eggs, I will have to relocate her to the dining room. Whilst Annabelle was a fine roommate, I don’t think I can take a swarm of baby spiders left right and centre.
Visit this link for more about Pholcidae spiders
I am owned and loved by a female feline who looks very similar to the picture. She definitely uses the blinking communication method with me. We are in contact all of the time. When its time for bed she will sit in front of me and blink once, when I answer with a blink of both eyes (meaning I am going to bed now), she responds. I can be lying in bed for a few moments when she is beside me cuddling up. I believe that to be able to have contact with your animal friend in such a close and loving way has to be a gift from God.
just saw this in my bathroom last night… spider dancing around trying to get close. I wished him well…unfortunately this morning i see he was made to be a nice snack >.< hopefully for him he at least got the job done first… haha