What are orb-weaver spiders?
Orb Weaver Spiders. Orb Weaver Spider Characteristics. Because there are so many different species of Orb Weavers, they differ in colour shape and size. The commonly seen ... Orb Weaver Spider Gallery. Orb Weaver Spider Habitat and Webs. Orb Weaver Spider Diet. Orb Weaver Spider Venom.
What do you need to know about orb weavers?
Areas that orb weaver spiders live in include: Nightlights Fences Tree branches Weeds Tall grass
What is the genus name of the orb weaver?
Cryptic Orb-weaver – Acroaspis species. Scorpion-tailed Spider – Arachnura higginsi. Pointy Orb-weaver – Araneus acuminatus. Winged Orb-weaver – Araneus albotriangulus. Speckled Orb-weaver – Araneus circulissparsus. St Andrew’s Cross Spider – Argiope keyserlingi. Jewel Spider – Austracantha minax.
What do orb-weaver spiders eat?
Araneidae. (Orb-weavers) The spider family Araneidae, commonly known as Orb-weavers, have been sighted 2076 times by contributing members. Based on collected data, the geographic range for Araneidae includes 81 countries and 51 states in the United States. Araneidae is most often sighted outdoors, and during the month of October.
How do I identify an orb weaver spider?
Identification. The commonly seen Garden Orb Weavers are stout, reddish-brown or grey spiders with a leaf-shaped pattern on their fat, roughly triangular abdomens, which also have two noticeable humps towards the front. They sometimes have a dorsal stripe which may be white or brown edged with white.
What makes a spider an orb weaver?
Many orb weavers are brightly colored, have hairy or spiny legs and a relatively large abdomen that overlaps the back edge of the cephalothorax. Abdomens vary between species. Some orb-weaver spiders have spiny, smooth, or irregularly shaped abdomens. Most nocturnal orb weavers are usually brown or gray in color.
Can you keep an orb weaver as a pet?
An Orb Weaver can be cared for by any beginner that has the space to keep them in a large 45-gallon tank. What makes these spiders hard to keep is the amount of space they need to live....12. Orb Weaver.Quick SummaryPriceFree (wild caught)Size0.25 – 0.9 inchesLifespan1 yearTank Size45-gallon
What are Orb spiders good for?
Eating twice its weight in insects each day, these spiders protect your plants in your garden by helping control the population of aphids, ants, flies, leafhoppers, leaf miners, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, beetles, wasps, moths, stinkbugs, and caterpillars.
Overview
Description
Generally, orb-weaving spiders are three-clawed builders of flat webs with sticky spiral capture silk. The building of a web is an engineering feat, begun when the spider floats a line on the wind to another surface. The spider secures the line and then drops another line from the center, making a "Y". The rest of the scaffolding follows with many radii of nonsticky silk being constructed before …
Taxonomy
The oldest known true orb-weaver is Mesozygiella dunlopi, from the Lower Cretaceous. Several fossils provide direct evidence that the three major orb-weaving families, namely Araneidae, Tetragnathidae and Uloboridae, had evolved by this time, about 140 million years ago. They probably originated during the Jurassic (200 to 140 million years ago). Based on new molecular evi…
Reproduction
Araneid species either mate at the central hub of the web, where the male slowly traverses the web, trying not to get eaten, and when reaching the hub, mounts the female; or the male constructs a mating thread inside or outside the web to attract the female via vibratory courtship, and if successful, mating occurs on the thread.
In the cannibalistic and polyandrous orb-web spider Argiope bruennichi, the much smaller males ar…
Genera
As of August 2021 , the World Spider Catalog accepts the following genera:
• Acacesia Simon, 1895 — South America, North America
• Acantharachne Tullgren, 1910 — Congo, Madagascar, Cameroon
• Acanthepeira Marx, 1883 — North America, Brazil, Cuba
See also
• List of Araneidae species
Further reading
• Crompton, John (1950). The Life of the Spider. New York: Mentor. OCLC 610423670.
• Dondale, C. D.; Redner, J. H.; Paquin, P.; Levi, H. W. (2003). The Orb-Weaving Spiders of Canada and Alaska. Araneae: Uloboridae, Tetragnathidae, Araneidae, Theridiosomatidae. Insects and Arachnids of Canada. Vol. 23. Ottawa: NRC Research Press. ISBN 978-0-660-18898-0.
External links
• Spiders of Australia
• Spiders of northwestern Europe
• Araneae, Arachnology Home Pages
• World Spider Catalog