Spiderbloggers

The kitchen and living room ceiling is edged by daddy long-legs, many young recently hatched, and four females with egg sacs. There are full grown and one is a young thing with a small egg sac. I have often wondered if they ate, given they hold the egg sac in their jaws. I thought I had seen one in the past leave the egg sac and feed. But I wasn't sure. Tonight, my young thing had a small fly in her web. She was certainly reacting to it. When it was caught there, she took about 5 minutes to secure her egg sac and then went off and brought the tiny fly back to the middle of her web to feed:

Below is the view above my head a few days ago. This is the largest of the females I have in the living area - numbering about 6 at the moment with egg sacs, and quite a few more males and females wandering around. Lots of twanging between males and females on various webs. Gorgeous to watch. The young had just hatched and the female was feeding. There is a skin in the top - it can't be her moult - she had an egg sac there for weeks. So either someone else has moulted in her web, or someone else became dinner. The young are still with her tonight. I guess they need to do their next moult and be able to feed, at which stage they'll disperse. Given I have bred hundreds of these guys in here this year, and there are only a dozen or so adults, I can only suppose that they eat each other. Any other suggestions?

More births. The young female at the top had her egg sac hatch today. She has a male in attendance already! The babies above my desk are still with the mother. Lots more egg sacs around the room. Yet people visiting never notice them - nor the webs. They don't look up.

Ah, what wonderful little baby spiders! I really do wish I had a pholcidae in the house. Alas, I have only Achaearanea and some Dictynidae on my houseplant leaves this winter.

I adore my Pholcids. Here's one of my females today:

It's mid-winter and we're just home for a trip to the UK. Now here's the question: where are all my pholcids?

I must have had 500 young hatch in the kitchen and living room last summer and autumn, and yet there is only two adult felmales, one adult male (guessing by body shape) and a dozen young hanging around the kitchen. Did they eat each other? Judging by the debris in their webs, they didn't starve - there is food in here. In fact, the lights get filled with dead bodies of various flying insects and regularly have to be cleared out.

Big puzzle.