Micropholcus fauroti - Cellar Spider / Daddy Long-Legs / Aranha-de-Porão (Simon, 1887)

Precursor to Fate

Description: Thank you to Leonardo Carvalho (www.facebook.com/leonardo.carvalho.31521?fref=gc&dti=...) for the identification of this specimen. Found on the 16th floor of a flat in Brazil, Ceará, Fortaleza.

Micropholcus fauroti is a spider in the class Arachnida, order Araneae, suborder Opisthothelae, infraorder Araneomorphae, clade Synspermiata (most entities place them under Haplogynae, but take a look at this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogynae), superfamily Pholcoidea, family Pholcidae and subfamily Pholcinae.

As of now, 2nd of May, 2018 at 05:15pm, Micropholcus is a genus with 15 recognized and accepted species. M. fauroti are Pantropically distributed, but were introduced in Belgium and Germany. The fragility of this spider is remarkable; simple, gentle touching or taps can break off the legs. They are usually very long-legged, with the femur being about two times the body's length in males and 1.5 times the body's length in females. The male's procursus possesses a characteristic dorsal projection. The females and the males have a shallow, inconspicuous thoracic groove. The female's epigyne is unsclerotized with distinctive internal structures in a crescent shape visible through the cuticle anteriorly. The male's body length is generally around 2,4mm, while the female's is generally around 2,7mm. Micropholcus fauroti has 8 eyes arranged in two lateral triads and the anterior median eyes are placed in between, on the frontal part of the prosoma. In species with six eyes, the anterior median eyes are absent. In some genera the eyes are placed on conspicuous elevations of the prosoma. These are reminiscent of a pair of horns, each carrying one of the lateral eye triads. Eyes are further reduced in size in many cave dwelling species and many troglodite species' eyes are completely lost. They are pale in coloring; the subject portrayed's coloring may be slightly off due to lighting. The webs built by Pholcids vary greatly in size and complexity. Some species possess shorter legs, while others' legs can reach sizes over 20 times the body's length. Pholcids are very variable in body shape and coloration but there are diagnostic characters that can distinguish them from other relatives; modified male palpal paracymbium called procursus; the sexual modifications of the male chelicerae; the pseudosegmentation of the leg tarsi.

Synonyms can be found here: species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Micropholcus_fauroti

The genus itself is composed of fragile species that seek shelter in protected places, possibly as a mechanism of defense due to that fragility. These places are able to provide them with food. As such, the habitats of Micropholcus fauroti in the wild are often places where they can lay under rocks, in cavities and crevices, and in caves. They possess great ecological plasticity and can be found everywhere, from deserts to humid tropical forests. In forests, they are found in leaf litter, in webs between buttresses and twigs of trees reaching up to the canopy and on the underside of preferably large leaves. Many species are cryptic. Those occurring between buttresses are typically dark while the ones that lay underside leaves tend to be of a light greenish coloring. In urban and suburban habitats, where they are most often seen, they are most commonly found in houses on the ceiling and in corners where groundbound bioforms have less access to them and flying prey can be caught easily. They will vibrate when disturbed. They may have substantial impact on the population of disease transmitting insects, but this has been studied in only one case (Stickman et al., 1997). They are 100% harmless to anything that is not a small insect. The subject portrayed is a female. According to the "Pholcidae" article on Wikipedia: "Certain species of these seemingly benign spiders invade webs of other spiders and eat the host, the eggs, or the prey. In some cases the spider vibrates the web of other spiders, mimicking the struggle of trapped prey to lure the host of the web closer. Pholcids are natural predators of the Tegenaria species, and are known to attack and eat redback spiders (Latrodectus hasseltii), huntsman spiders (Sparassidae) and house spiders. It is this competition that helps keep Tegenaria populations in check, which may be advantageous to humans who live in regions with dense hobo spider populations."

Sources:

books.google.com.br/books?id=zpoCc_c6dx8C&pg=PA182&am...

bugguide.net/node/view/1490680

araneae.unibe.ch/data/1779/Micropholcus_fauroti

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropholcus_fauroti

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae

tolweb.org/Pholcidae/2719

PROJECT NOAH (Português): www.projectnoah.org/spottings/341140998

Taken in: Brasil / Ceará / Fortaleza / Estância (show map)

Taken on: March 1, 2018

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