Theridiidae  Sundevall, 1833 / Parasteatoda  Archer, 1946   4 species

Parasteatoda tepidariorum  (C. L. Koch, 1841)

Description

Entrance ducts forming a heart-shaped figure, longer than wide. Prosoma and sternum ochre yellow or brown, mostly irregularly spotted and with dark margin. Chelicerae ochre-yellow, or brown, mostly irregularly spotted. Legs brown, long and stout, with dark narrow annulations. Opisthosoma spotted light brown and dark brown, sometimes with vague pattern.

Body length male: 3.5-6.5 mm
Body length female: 3.5-7.5 mm
Additional information

On walls, often in buildings, on tree trunks (there more often P. simulans).

This species can bite humans. A bite causes moderate to severe, long-lasting pain, but no systemic effects (Nentwig et al., 2013).

This species of Asian origin is not native to Europe (alien species). It had been introduced to Europe at least once and did establish.

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): Asia. Introduced to Canada, USA, South America, Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, Russia (Europe to Far East), South Africa, Seychelles, New Zealand, Hawaii
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Figures
Distribution List

"No references" does not mean that the species does not occur in this country, but that we have not yet inserted the reference for it. We are working on it.

Austria   (no references) ||| Azerbaijan   (Otto, 2022) ||| Belarus   (Ivanov, 2013) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (no references) ||| Faroe Islands   (Lissner et al., 2016b) ||| Finland   (Koponen et al., 2016) ||| France   (no references) ||| Georgia   (Otto, 2022) ||| Germany   (no references) ||| Greece   (no references) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Iceland   (Agnarsson, 1996) ||| Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Latvia   (Cera, 2018) ||| Liechtenstein   (Arnold, 2001) ||| Lithuania   (Machač et al., 2016) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Malta   (Pfliegler et al., 2017) ||| Montenegro   (no references) ||| Netherlands   (no references) ||| North Macedonia   (Komnenov, 2014) ||| Northern Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Norway   (Aakra & Hauge, 2003) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka & Stanska, 2008) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (no references) ||| Russia, Central   (Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Russia, Eastern   (no references) ||| Russia, Kaliningrad Region   (no references) ||| Russia, Northern   (no references) ||| Russia, Southern   (Otto, 2022; Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Serbia   (no references) ||| Slovakia   (no references) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain / Balearic Islands   (Branco et al., 2019; Barrientos & Febrer, 2017) ||| Sweden   (Kronestedt, 2001) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2024) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (Demircan & Topçu, 2016) ||| Ukraine   (Polchaninova & Prokopenko, 2019) ||| United Kingdom   (Lavery, 2019) |||
References

Aakra K, Hauge E (2003) Checklist of Norwegian spiders (Arachnida: Araneae), including Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Norwegian Journal of Entomology 50: 109-129 pdf

Agnarsson I (1996) Íslenskar köngulær Fjölrit Náttúrufræðistofnunar 31: 1-175 pdf

Arnold K (2001) Beitrag zur Spinnenfauna (Arachnida, Araneae) des Fürstentums Liechtenstein. Berichte der Botanisch-Zoologischen Gesellschaft Liechtenstein-Sargans-Werdenberg 28: 211-244 pdf

Barrientos J A, Febrer B (2017) Arañas (Arachnida, Araneae) de Menorca (Islas Baleares, España). Nuevos datos. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 31: 8-24 pdf

Blagoev G, Deltshev C, Lazarov S, Naumova M (2018) The spiders (Araneae) of Bulgaria. Version: August 2018. National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Online at http://www.nmnhs.com/spiders-bulgaria/ (accessed on 10.9.2018) pdf

Bosmans R, Van Keer K (2017) Een herziene soortenlijst van de Belgische spinnen (Araneae). Nieuwsbrief van de Belgische Arachnologische Vereniging 32: 39-69 pdf

Branco V V, Morano E, Cardoso P (2019) An update to the Iberian spider checklist (Araneae). Zootaxa 4614: 201-254 pdf

Cera I (2018) The checklist of Latvian spiders (Arachnida: Araneae). Environmental and Experimental Biology 16: 139-152 pdf

Danışman T, Kunt K B, Özkütük R S, Coşar İ (2024) The checklist of the spiders of Turkey. Version 2024 [last updated 01 January 2024], online at http://www.spidersofturkey.info pdf

Demircan N, Topçu A (2016) First records for spider fauna of the European part of Turkey (Araneae). Serket 15: 85-91 pdf

Ivanov V V (2013) The checklist of Belarusian spiders (Arachnida, Araneae). Zoology and Ecology 4: 293-311 pdf

Knoflach B (1991) Achaearanea tabulata Levi, eine für Österreich neue Kugelspinne (Arachnida, Aranei: Theridiidae). Berichte des Naturwissenschaftlich-Medizinischen Vereins in Innsbruck 78: 59-64 pdf

Komnenov M (2014) Spider fauna of the Osogovo Mt. Range, Northeastern Macedonia. Fauna Balkana 2: 1-267 pdf

Koponen S, Fritzén N R, Pajunen T (2016) Checklist of spiders in Finland (Araneae). 6th version, December 2016, online at http://biolcoll.utu.fi/arach/checklist_of_spiders_in_Finland.htm pdf

Kostanjšek R, Kuntner M (2015) Araneae Sloveniae: a national spider species checklist. ZooKeys 474: 1-91 pdf

Kreuels M, Staudt A, Christian S (2019) Die Spinnenfauna von Luxemburg – eine Zusammenstellung der Nachweise aus den Jahren 1906-2018 (Arachnida: Araneae). Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes luxembourgeois 121: 203-230 pdf

Kronestedt T (2001) Checklist of Spiders (Araneae) in Sweden [Preliminary version February 2001] pdf

Lavery A (2019) A revised checklist of the spiders of Great Britain and Ireland. Arachnology 18: 196-212 pdf

Lissner J, Jensen J-K, Hansen L J, Simonsen W, Kelduni R, Nissen K (2016b) An updated checklist of spiders (Araneae) of the Faroe Islands. Norwegian Journal of Entomology 63: 197-240 pdf

Locket G H, Millidge A F (1953) British spiders. Vol. II. Ray Society, London, 449 pp. pdf

Locket G H, Millidge A F, Merrett P (1974) British Spiders, Volume III. Ray Society, London, 315 pp. pdf

Løvbrekke H (unpubl.)

Machač O, Ivinskis P, Rimšaitė J (2016) Several new for the Lithuanian fauna species of spiders (Araneae). Naujos ir retos Lietuvos vabzdžių rūšys 28: 121-126 pdf

Milosevic B (2002) Aranea – Popis vrsta – Checklist. Hrvatsko entomološko društvo – Inventar entomofaune Hrvatske [Aranea – List of species – Checklist. Croatian Entomological Society – Inventory of Croatian entomofauna]. pdf

Nentwig W, Gnädinger M, Fuchs J, Ceschi A (2013) A two year study of verified spider bites in Switzerland and a review of the European spider bite literature. Toxicon 73: 104-110 pdf

Otto S (2022) Caucasian spiders. A faunistic database on the spiders of the Caucasus Ecoregion. Database version 02.2022. Internet: caucasus-spiders.info.

Pantini P, Isaia M (2019) Araneae.it: the online catalog of Italian spiders, with addenda on other arachnid orders occurring in Italy (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Palpigradi, Pseudoscorpionida, Scorpiones, Solifugae). Fragmenta Entomologica 51: 127-152 pdf

Pfliegler W A, Schönhofer A, Niedbała W, Vella P, Sciberras A, Vella A (2017) New records of mites (Acari) and harvestmen (Opiliones) from Malta with a preliminary checklist of Maltese Arachnida. Soil Organisms 89: 85-110 pdf

Polchaninova N, Prokopenko E (2019) An updated checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Left-Bank Ukraine. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 57: 60-64 & App pdf

Ponomarev A V (2022) Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of the southeast of the Russian Plain: catalogue, the fauna specific features. SSC RAS Publishers, Rostov-on-Don, 640 pp. pdf

Roberts M J (1995) Collins Field Guide: Spiders of Britain & Northern Europe. HarperCollins, London, 383 pp. pdf

Rozwałka R, Stanska M (2008) Check-list of spiders (Araneae) of Poland. 1. December 2008. online at http://www.arachnologia.edu.pl/en/species/8-spiders-of-poland.html pdf

Růžička V, Řezáč M (2022a) Seznam pavouků České republiky. List of spiders of the Czech Republic. Online at https://www.arachnology.cz/seznam-pavouku-cr-26.html and https://www.arachnology.cz/en/seznam-pavouku-cr-26.html pdf

Samu F, Szinetár C (1999) Bibliographic check list of the Hungarian spider fauna. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 161-184 pdf

Wiehle H (1937) Spinnentiere oder Arachnoidea, VIII. 26: Familie Theridiidae oder Haubennetzspinnen (Kugelspinnen). Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 33: 119-222 pdf

WSC (2024) World Spider Catalog. Version 25.0. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (22.01.2024) doi: 10.24436/2 pdf

Updates
10-02-2023 Distribution update Detail
04-03-2021 Image insert
06-05-2020 Distribution insert Detail
16-05-2018 Distribution update Detail
30-12-2017 Distribution update Detail
22-02-2017 Distribution update Detail
26-11-2013 Datasheet update Detail