Crossopriza lyoni and Smeringopus pallidus: cellar spiders new to Florida

A variety of synanthropic spiders (species which occur primarily around human habitations), native and exotic, occur in Florida (e.g., Edwards 1979a, b, 1983, 1985). However, the potential for acquiring additional subtropical or tropical species is ever present. Their small size and close association with humans provide ample opportunities for such species to be transported. Two such apparent recent introductions are Crossopriza lyoni (Blackwall) and Smerineopus pallidus (Blackwall), members of the cellar spider family (Pholciclae). More familiar members of this family include the long-bodied cellar spider, Pholcus phalangioides (Fuesslin) and the short-bodied cellar spider, Spermophora meridionalis Hentz (Kaston 1948), both found in Florida. These spiders often build webs in cellars in more northern states, hence their common name. Although cellars are infrequently built in Florida, cellar spiders are able to find suitable accommodations in, on, or under an assortment of man-made structures.

Both C. lyoni and S. pallidus occur in Southeast Asia (Yaginuma 1986). Crossopriza lyoni is probably native to that area, although both species have been inadvertently introduced by man to many tropical and some temperate parts of the world Crossopriza lyoni was first reported in the United States (as C. stridulans Millot) from Texas and Louisiana (Roth 1985). The first known Florida record is from Orange Heights in eastern Alachua County, collected 15 August 1984 by G. B. Edwards and K. Vijayalakshmi. Several specimens of both sexes, including females with eggs, were taken from a well-established population under the eave of a shed attached to a barn. J. F. Anderson subsequently captured two males and two females with eggs, on 16 December 1988, from the ground floor of a building on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville in a vending machine area. Until recently, these were the only Florida records in the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) museum. On 25 September 1993, R.R. Jackson and G. B. Edwards collected one specimen from a population of several females noticed on the upper edge of the front window of a store in McIntosh (Marion County).

Roth (1985) reported S. pallidus (as S. elongatus (Vinson)) to occur in Texas and Florida, although he did not give specific locality records. The only FSCA record of this species was of one male, two females, and one juvenile from Gifford (Indian River County), collected 23 April 1991 by K. Hibbard and K. Dady from assorted dead wood at a dump site. This also is a man-made situation, and the number of specimens collected indicates that a viable population is probably established.

It is unknown how these two pholcid species were introduced into Florida. Since both species are known to occur in Texas, and C. lyoni also occurs in Louisiana, it is possible that both species simply migrated, either naturally or by human transport in commercial goods or household belongings, along the Gulf Coast. Another speculation would be that both species were brought to the United States from Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, in the 1960’s or 1970’s.