Photo Short #26 - The (Not So) Venomous Cellar Spider

I took today’s Photo Short of this Cellar Spider in my kitchen in the UK. These are sometimes called Daddy Long Legs Spiders. Though this can cause confusion with a Cranefly which is a completely different animal.

I found the spider sitting on a white ceramic tile, which was perfect to get this bright photo. I later used Photoshop to increase the brightness of the whites and isolate the spider on a clean background.

Location	Stroud, United Kingdom
Camera	Nikon D300S
Lens	Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D (With +4 Magnifying Filter)
Settings	50mm \| ISO400 \| 1/20 sec \| f/16
Post Processing	Adobe Lightroom And Photoshop \| Nik Collection

What I like about this photo is that you can see the spiders face. It looks like it has a cute little nose, but in fact that nose is an eye. There are three clusters of eyes, the two on either side contain three eyes each, and the false nose in the middle contains two more. Eight eyes in total, matching its eight legs. It certainly is a strange little beast.

People like to say these Cellar Spiders have the strongest venom of all arachnids, but fangs not strong enough to bite. This is a myth and, if anything, it's the opposite way around. The spider is capable of biting with its tiny fangs, though you probably wouldn't even feel it, and the venom is not potent enough nor delivered in sufficient quantity to cause any harm to humans. Besides, these spiders are fragile and timid creatures, when they feel threatened, they tend to flee rather than bite.