FAMILY ARANEIDAE - Orb Web Spiders
This page contains pictures and information about Orb Web Spiders (Family Araneidae, formerly Argiopidae) that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Araneidae is a large family. They can be small to large in side. All species in this family, if they make webs, they make vertical or horizontal orb webs. Some species construct some sort of stabilizer in the center of the web. Some members in this family do not make web at all. All of them have eight eyes.
- Their body and legs are usually hairy. It is believed that those hair are their major sensors, as the eyes to human, to sense the world. They extend their sense of touch by using their web as wall. The spider reacts to loud noise, so do not speak loudly when watching spider. The spider on its web will ignore the strong wind but will react to your slight blow towards it. Most web weaver spiders are blind, or at least with very poor eye sight. They will not react to the light of torch, or even the flash of camera. But they can distinguish day and night. We seldom see spiders build their webs during day time. More facts on spiders can be find in this page.
- Most of us have the experience of walk into a big sticky spiders web. Suddenly covered by the sticky silk, we would be quite certain that the spider is now crawling on our body and we will immediately trying to jump and brush ourselves to get rid of the potentially harmful spider. However, the poor spider at this time should be more frighten than you, and most likely it has either dropped onto the ground or rushed up to a near by retreat.
- Followings listed the Orb Web Spiders that we found.
Subfamily Araneinae
Warp-around Spiders - genus Dolophones
Subfamily Arkyinae
Subfamily Cyrtophorinae
Subfamily Argiopinae
Subfamily Cyrtarachninae
- Please advise if you can identify any of them. Thank you.
- Spider species 1 not identified yet.
- ?sp., body length 6mm
- We only find this spider once in our backyard. The spider is white to transparent in colour, with two bright white spots on brown pattern on abdomen. Its legs are relatively small. The spider build orb web so we put it in this family. Its web is about 30cm in diameter, 45 degree to horizontal.
- Reference:
- 1. A Guide to Australian Spiders - Densey Clyne, Melbourne, Nelson 1969, p64.
- 2. FAMILY Araneidae Simon, 1895 - Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University,
- 3. ARANEIDAE Orb or wheel weavers - Save Our Waterways Now.
- 4. Thumbnail page of Australian spiders - by Ed Nieuwenhuys, 2007.
- 1. A Guide to Australian Spiders - Densey Clyne, Melbourne, Nelson 1969, p64.
