Araneidae  Clerck, 1757 / Aculepeira  Chamberlin & Ivie, 1942   7 species

Aculepeira armida (Audouin, 1826)

Description
Male

Prosoma brown. The elongated, reddish brown and sometimes almost black opisthosoma bears broad longitudinal yellowish band-like markings, which are cut by a lateral aphophysis and dispersed marks and spots. The venter bears an always well-visible longitudinal dark median mark. Coxa II basis with a thick ventral tooth or tubercle. Anterior and posterior parts of the oval opisthosoma narrowed. Venter entirely black, with weakly visible yellow sprinkles.

Body length male: 6.8-7.2 mm
Female

As in male. Venter behind epigastric furrow entirely black or with only a small yellow mark.

Body length female: 11.6-18.3 mm
Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2026): North Africa, Southern Europe, Turkey, Israel, Russia (Europe to Far East), Iran, Central Asia to ChinaAsia to China
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Figures
Distribution List
Albania   (Vrenozi, 2012) ||| Algeria   (Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Armenia   (Otto, 2022) ||| Azerbaijan   (Otto, 2022) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Cyprus   (Bosmans et al., 2019c) ||| France   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| France / Corsica   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| Georgia   (Otto, 2022) ||| Greece   (Bosmans & Chatzaki, 2005) ||| Greece / Crete   (Bosmans et al., 2013) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Italy   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Libya   (Elkrew et al., 2024) ||| Morocco   (Benhalima & Bosmans, 2024) ||| North Macedonia   (Blagoev, 2002) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (Weiss & Petrișor, 1999; Pintilioaie & Urák, 2022b) ||| Russia, Central   (Ponomarev, 2022; Alekseenko, 2019) ||| Russia, Eastern   (Esyunin & Efimik, 1996a) ||| Russia, Southern   (Otto, 2022; Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Slovakia   (Gajdoš et al., 1999) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain / Balearic Islands   (Barrientos & Febrer, 2020) ||| Switzerland   (Maurer & Hänggi, 1990) ||| Tunisia   (Kmira et al., 2025) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2025a) ||| Ukraine   (Polchaninova & Prokopenko, 2019) |||
References

Alekseenko Y G (2019) [Zoogeographical analysis of araneophauna of steppous plots of the Ulyanovsk region with data on area expansing of several species]. Izvestiya of Saratov University (N. S.) Chemistry Biology Ecology 19: 223-229 pdf

Barrientos J A, Febrer J B (2020) Arañas (Arachnida, Araneae) de Menorca (Islas Baleares, España). 3: nuevos datos. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología 36: 69-78 pdf

Benhacene R, Adjami A, Hadjeb A, Kermiche K, Ouakid M L (2023) Bibliographic checklist of the Algerian spider fauna (Araneae). Zootaxa 5352: 301-357 pdf

Benhalima S, Bosmans R (2024) First historical checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from Morocco, between 1840–2024. Zootaxa 5555: 407-535 pdf

Blagoev G (2002) Check list of Macedonian spiders (Araneae). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 54: 9-34 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, Chatzaki M (2005) A catalogue of the spiders of Greece – a critical review of all spider species cited from Greece with their localities. Nieuwsbrief van de Belgische arachnologische Vereniging 20 (2, suppl.): 1-124 pdf

Bosmans R, Van Keer J, Russell-Smith A, Hadjiconstantis M, Komnenov M, Bosselaers J, Huber S, McCowan D, Snazell R, Decae A, Zoumides C, Kielhorn K-H, Oger P (2019c) Spiders of Cyprus (Araneae). A catalogue of all currently known species from Cyprus. Newsletter of the Belgian Arachnological Society 34, Suppl. 1: 1-173 pdf

Bosmans R, Van Keer J, Russell-Smith A, Kronestedt T, Alderweireldt M, Bosselaers J, De Koninck H (2013) Spiders of Crete (Araneae). A catalogue of all currently known species from the Greek island of Crete. Nieuwsbrief van de Belgische Arachnologische Vereniging 28 (Suppl. 1): 1-147 pdf

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

Brignoli P M (1968d) Su alcuni Araneidae e Theridiidae di Sicilia (Araneae). Atti dell' Accademia Gioenia di Scienze Naturali in Catania 20: 85-104 pdf

Danışman T, Kunt K B, Özkütük R S, Coşar İ (2025a) The checklist of the spiders of Turkey. Version 2025 [last updated 01 December 2025], online at http://www.spidersofturkey.info pdf

Elkrew H, Hamza A, Ghana S, Shaibi T, Swehli A I, Elmareme H, Ahmad A (2024) Checklist of the spiders (Araneae) of Libya. Pakistan Journal of Life and Social Sciences 22: 19346-19369 pdf

Esyunin S L, Efimik V E (1996a) Catalogue of the spiders (Arachnida, Aranei) of the Urals. KMK Scientific Press, Moscow, 228 pp. pdf

Gajdoš P, Svatoň J, Sloboda J (1999) Katalóg pavúkov Slovenska. Catalogue of Slovakian spiders. Ústav kr. ekol. SAV, Bratislava, 337 pp.

Iorio E, Herbrecht F (2016) Découverte d’une araignée thermophile remarquable dans le sud-est de l'Anjou: Aculepeira armida (Savigny in Audouin, 1825) (Araneae, Araneidae). Invertébrés Armoricains 14: 67-75 pdf

Isaia M, Tolve M, Pantini P (2025) Araneae.it: 2.0: the new updated version of the digital catalog of the Italian spiders and other arachnids (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones, Scorpiones, Pseudoscorpiones, Palpigradi, Solifugae). Fragmenta Entomologica 57: 197-204 pdf

Kmira G, Nasri-Ammar, Petillon J, Bosmans R (2025) Catalog of the spiders of Tunisia (Arachnida: Araneae). Zootaxa 5641: 1-95 pdf

Le Peru B (2007) Catalogue et répartition des araignées de France. Revue Arachnologique 16: 1-468 pdf

Levi H W (1977b) The orb-weaver genera Metepeira, Kaira and Aculepeira in America north of Mexico (Araneae, Araneidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 148: 185-238 pdf

Loksa I (1972) Pokok II-Araneae II. Fauna Hungariae 109: 1-112 pdf

Maurer R, Hänggi A (1990) Katalog der schweizerischen Spinnen. Documenta Faunistica Helvetiae 12 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

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

Pintilioaie A-M, Urák I (2022b) The rediscovery of Aculepeira armida (Araneae: Araneidae) in Romania after more than 100 years. Biharean Biologist 16: 40-43 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

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

Taberlet J-P (unpubl.)

Vrenozi B (2012) A collection of spiders (Araneae) in Albanian coastal areas. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 44: 41-46 pdf

Weiss I, Petrișor A (1999) List of the spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from Romania. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 41: 79-107 pdf

WSC (2026) World Spider Catalog. Version 27. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch (13.2.2026) doi: 10.24436/2 pdf

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