The bowl and doily spider is a species of sheet weaver found in North and Central America. It is a small spider, about 4 mm (0.16 in) long, that weaves a fairly complex and unique sheet web system consisting of an inverted dome shaped web, or "bowl," suspended above a horizontal sheet web, or "doily", hence its common name. The spider hangs from the underside of the "bowl", and bites through the web small flies, gnats and other small insects that fall down into the non-sticky webbing. The webs are commonly seen in weedy fields and in shrubs, and may often contain both a male and a female spider in late summer—like many linyphiids, Frontinella males and females may cohabitate for some time. Males exhibit competition for female mates both by fighting and sperm competition. Uniquely, these spiders exhibit behavioral thermoregulation and have lengthened circadian rhythms.
The Agelenidae are a large family of spiders in the suborder Araneomorphae. Well-known examples include the common "grass spiders" of the genus Agelenopsis. Nearly all Agelenidae are harmless to humans, but the bite of the hobo spider may be medically significant, and some evidence suggests it might cause necrotic lesions, but the matter remains subject to debate. The most widely accepted common name for members of the family is funnel weaver.
Linyphiidae, spiders commonly known as sheet weavers, or money spiders is a family of very small spiders comprising 4706 described species in 620 genera worldwide. This makes Linyphiidae the second largest family of spiders after the Salticidae. The family is poorly understood due to their small body size and wide distribution; new genera and species are still being discovered throughout the world. The newest such genus is Himalafurca from Nepal, formally described in April 2021 by Tanasevitch. Since it is so difficult to identify such tiny spiders, there are regular changes in taxonomy as species are combined or divided.
The epigyne or epigynum is the external genital structure of female spiders. As the epigyne varies greatly in form in different species, even in closely related ones, it often provides the most distinctive characteristic for recognizing species. It consists of a small, hardened portion of the exoskeleton located on the underside of the abdomen, in front of the epigastric furrow and between the epigastric plates.
A bolas spider is a member of the orb-weaver spider that, instead of spinning a typical orb web, hunts by using one or more sticky "capture blobs" on the end of a silk line, known as a "bolas". By swinging the bolas at flying male moths or moth flies nearby, the spider may snag its prey rather like a fisherman snagging a fish on a hook. Because of this, they are also called angling or fishing spiders. The prey is lured to the spider by the production of up to three sex pheromone-analogues.
Trichonephila clavipes, commonly known as the golden silk orb-weaver, golden silk spider, or colloquially banana spider, is an orb-weaving spider species which inhabits forests and wooded areas ranging from the southern US to Argentina. It is indigenous to both continental North and South America. Known for the golden color of their silk, the large size of their females, and their distinctive red-brown and yellow coloring, T. clavipes construct large, asymmetrical circular webs attached to trees and low shrubs in woods to catch small- and medium-size flying prey, mostly insects. They are excellent web-builders, producing and utilizing seven different types of silk, and they subdue their prey by injecting them with venom, as opposed to related species which immobilize their prey by wrapping them in silk first. They are not known to be aggressive towards humans, only biting out of self-defense if touched, and their relatively harmless venom has a low toxicity, posing little health concern to healthy human adults. Due to their prevalence in forests, T. clavipes may be encountered by hikers.
Darwin's bark spider is an orb-weaver spider that produces the largest known orb webs, ranging from 900 to 28,000 square centimetres, with bridge lines spanning up to 25 metres (82 ft). The spider was discovered in Madagascar in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in 2009. Its silk is the toughest biological material ever studied. Its tensile strength is 1.6 GPa. The species was named in honour of the naturalist Charles Darwin on November 24, 2009—precisely 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species.
Cyrtophora exanthematica are tent spiders common in tropical Asia and Australia. They are commonly known as double-tailed tent spiders because of the pair of blunt projections at the end of their abdomens. They are harmless to humans.
Cyrtophora parangexanthematica is a species of tent spider found in the Philippines. Its scientific name comes from its close resemblance to double-tailed tent spiders. It was described from a single female specimen collected in 1995.
Araneus mitificus, commonly known as the kidney garden spider or pale orb weaver is a species of orb-weaver spider found in South, East, and Southeast Asia.
Ancyronyx, commonly known as spider water beetles or spider riffle beetles, is a genus of aquatic riffle beetles from North America, South Asia, China, and Southeast Asia. They are small beetles with extremely long legs ending in strong claws. Both the adults and the larvae are found underwater in the shallow riffles of streams and rivers, clinging to rocks or submerged wood. They feed on algae and decaying wood tissue. The genus contains twenty-one species, eleven of which are endemic to the Philippines.
Holocnemus pluchei, commonly known as the marbled cellar spider, is a species of Pholcidae, a family commonly referred to as "cellar spiders" or "daddy long-legs". This species is distributed across the North Pacific region of the United States, as well as in parts of North Africa, Europe, and the Mediterranean. It is considered a common household spider and builds its nest in attics, basements, and eaves of houses. Although some members of the species live in solitary webs, the majority join already existing webs and migrate to new webs multiple times throughout the course of their lives. A unique feature of H. pluchei is that while in many species of spiders, stridulation commonly occurs by males during sexual encounters, in H. pluchei, females also possess stridulatory organs, and both sexes engage in stridulation.
Laminacauda dysphorica is a species of sheet weaver found in Bolivia and Peru.
Verrucosa arenata, also known as the triangle orb weaver, arrowhead spider, and arrowhead orbweaver, is a species of orb-weaver spider found across North America. It is one of the few known large orb-weaver spiders that sits facing upwards in its web. Unlike most orb-weavers, which have bulbous abdomens, V. arenata has an abdomen that is pointy and triangular, shaped like the tip of an arrow. In females, the abdomen is colored white or yellow. Additionally, V. arenata uses reeling behavior in order to capture its prey, as its webs are stronger than that of most other orb weavers. The genus name Verrucosa means "warty" in Latin, referring to the small wartlike bumps on the spider's abdomen, while the specific epithet arenata derives from Latin arena, meaning "sand".
Primerigonina is a monotypic genus of Central American sheet weavers containing the single species, Primerigonina australis. It was first described by J. Wunderlich in 1995, and has only been found in Panama.
Scutpelecopsis is a genus of sheet weavers that was first described by Y. M. Marusik & V. A. Gnelitsa in 2009.
Erigone atra is a species of dwarf spider or money spider, in the family Linyphiidae. It is commonly found in North America, Europe, parts of Russia, Central Asia, China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. This spider is one of the most common Erigone spiders. E. atra is an important spider for agriculture, as it preys on pests such as aphids which are commonly found on crops. E. atra spiders are aeronautical spiders, as they travel via ballooning. This technique, sometimes referred to as kiting, allows E. atra spiders to traverse large distances and find new habitats when environmental or human stresses create unfit living environments. E. atra is difficult to differentiate from other congeneric species because of their similar sizes and coloring.
Vietnagone is a small genus of Asian sheet weavers native to southeastern Tibet and northern Vietnam. It was erected by A. V. Tanasevitch in 2019 for one newly described species and one transferred from Gongylidium. They are relatively small spiders, ranging from 1.5 to 1.78 millimetres long. The name is a combination of "Vietnam" and the genus Erigone, and as of April 2022 it contains only two species: V. rugulosa and V. silvatica.
Nihonella is a monotypic genus of east Asian sheet weavers containing the single species, Nihonella chika. It was first described by F. Ballarin and T. Yamasaki in 2021, and it has only been found in Japan.
Notolinga is a monotypic genus of South American sheet weavers containing the single species, Notolinga fuegiana. It is a replacement name for Linga, already in use by a genus of molluscs. Eugène Simon described the first female in 1902 under the name "Neriene fuegiana", but the first male was not described until 2019. It has only been found in Argentina and on the Falkland Islands.
