Caution: Arachnophobes Beware

Before I went out, I noticed a grey patch beside the fireplace and went to investigate and made a few quick flash captures on my camera.  When I returned, they had all gone except for one.  I checked my camera images and googled their life cycle.

Apparently, the mother keeps them close for the first few days and then they all moult and disperse.  What I had captured was the immediate post-moult hiatus while their exoskeletons dried and hardened before they dispersed.  If you go large and zoom in, you can see some of the shed skeletons.

I now have to live with more than 50 spiders sharing my livingroom!!!!!

These are spiderlings of the common cellar spider, Pholcus phalangioides.