Pholcus opilionoides (Schrank, 1781)

Higher Taxonomy

Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Family: Pholcidae
Genus: Pholcus

Characterisation

Troglophile

Distribution

Europe to Azerbaijan, Egypt

Distribution in caves of Greece

• Spilaio Stylokamara, Beron 2016
  Region: Notio Aigaio / Regional unit: Karpathos / Municipality: Kasos / Closest settlement: Agia Marina

Comments

Roever (1928 & 1959) cited Pholcus opilionoides (Schrank, 1781) in 10 sites on Crete. According to Brignioli (1979) and Bosmans et al. (2013), these citations were erroneous. Bosmans et al. (2013), after the re-examination of Roewer’s material from Sarchos cave, assigned all these citations to Hoplopholcus labyrinthi (Kulczyński, 1903) and excluded P. olilionoides from the spider's list of Crete as it has never been collected during extensive sampling.

IUCN Red List

NE - Not Evaluated

Greece's Red Data Book

NE - Not Evaluated

Protection status

• There is no species-specific legal framework for protection.

Check Databases

Fauna Europea

GBIF

PESI

NCBI

Species references

• Beron, P. 2016. Faune cavernicole de la Grèce. Maison d'édition Est-West., Sofia. pp. 229.

Citation

Paragamian, K. 2026. Pholcus opilionoides (Schrank, 1781). In Paragamian, K., M. Poulinakis, S. Paragamian and I. Nikoloudakis. Cave fauna of Greece database - Hellenic Institute of Speleological Research. Species data updated 26.11.2024, Accessed 17.04.2026