My house is the hunting ground for swarms of spiders. This photograph of a family group was taken in the corner of the bathroom ceiling. As an arachnaphobe, I am amazed that I can live with them but it may be because these particular spiders are not hairy and do not scuttle, unlike the Tegenaria house spiders, known locally as 'teggies', which are evicted on sight.

These spiders are Pholcus phalangoides, often known as daddy-long-legs spiders. They hang in webs that are mere untidy wisps of silk and so flimsy that they appear incapable of catching anything. Yet I have several times seen a Pholcus spider quickly overcome a cranefly (the original daddy long-legs) in a melee of writhing, spindly limbs. The spider's technique is to throw a mass of silk threads over its victim before it can tear free from the web. If any creature too large to handle lands in the web, the spider throws itself into a frenzy of gyrations, spinning in circles like a demented acrobat, in an attempt to throw the intruder out. Gently prod a one of these spiders with a finger and watch it whirl around.