Dysderidae  C. L. Koch, 1837 / Dysdera  Latreille, 1804   210 species

Dysdera crocata  C. L. Koch, 1838

Description
Male

Bulb 1.5 mm long. Prosoma 4.6 mm long. Prosoma with broad and shallow head region. Chelicerae light to dark red-brown, stout, anterior cheliceral furrow margin straight or convex. Femur IV with 1-4 spines. Tibia IV mostly with on spine ventrally.

Body length male: 9-10 mm
Female

Vulva angular anteriorly, anterior process of receptaculum seminis appears uniformly broad, outwardly bent. Prosoma red-brown, with fine grains. Eyes: PME slightly larger than PLE, anteriors one diameter apart. Legs: femur IV usually with 2 dorsal spines, tibia III with 4 to 9 spines, tibia IV with 4 to 10 spines, metatarsus III and IV with numerous spines.

Comparison of D. crocata / D. erythrina by J.-P. Taberlet: PDF

Body length female: 11-15 mm
Additional information

In forests, marshes, dunes, gardens. Under stones, logs, in litter, moss. Also in caves, quarries, damp cellars.

This species can bite humans (Vetter & Isbister, 2006). The bite may be moderately painful and has a median duration of 40 minutes, in one third of cases pain is described as severe. There may also be moderate local itchiness and redness.

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): Azores, Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, Iraq, Central Asia. Introduced to North America, Chile, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Live several years as adults. Both sexes with a peak in June.
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.

Albania   (Deltshev et al., 2011b; Vrenozi, 2012; Blick, 2018) ||| Algeria   (Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Austria   (Deeleman-Reinhold & Deeleman, 1988) ||| Azerbaijan   (Otto, 2022) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Deeleman-Reinhold & Deeleman, 1988) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (no references) ||| Egypt   (Deeleman-Reinhold & Deeleman, 1988) ||| France   (no references) ||| France / Corsica   (no references) ||| Georgia   (Otto, 2022) ||| Germany   (no references) ||| Greece   (Deeleman-Reinhold & Deeleman, 1988) ||| Greece / Crete   (Deeleman-Reinhold & Deeleman, 1988) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Kosovo   (Geci & Naumova, 2021b) ||| Libya   (Deeleman-Reinhold & Deeleman, 1988) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Malta   (Pfliegler et al., 2017) ||| Montenegro   (no references) ||| Netherlands   (no references) ||| North Macedonia   (Blagoev, 2002) ||| Northern Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Poland   (Szymański et al., 2023) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (Deeleman-Reinhold & Deeleman, 1988) ||| 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) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2024) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (Deeleman-Reinhold & Deeleman, 1988) ||| Ukraine   (Polchaninova & Prokopenko, 2019) ||| United Kingdom   (Lavery, 2019) |||
References

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

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

Blick T (2018) A small collection of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from the River Vjosa, Albania – with an updated spider checklist of Albania. Acta ZooBot Austria 155: 213-232 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

Brændegaard J (1966) Edderkopper: Eller Spindlere I Danmarks Fauna 72: 1-224 pdf

Burger M (unpubl.)

Cassar T, Řezáč M (2021) The Dysderidae of the Maltese Islands (Arachnida: Araneae). Arachnologische Mitteilungen 62: 82-85 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

Deeleman-Reinhold C L, Deeleman P R (1988) Revision des Dysderinae (Araneae, Dysderidae), les espèces mediterranéennes occidentales exceptées. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 131: 141-269 pdf

Deltshev C, Vrenozi B, Blagoev G, Lazarov S (2011b) Spiders of Albania – faunistic and zoogeographical review (Arachnida: Araneae). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 63: 125-144 pdf

Geci D, Naumova M (2021b) A preliminary checklist of the spiders of Kosovo (Arachnida: Araneae). Ecologia Balkanica, Special Edition 4: 11-28 pdf

Heimer S, Nentwig W (1991) Spinnen Mitteleuropas. Paul Parey Berlin 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

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

Locket G H, Millidge A F (1951) British spiders. Vol. I. Ray Society, London, 310 pp. pdf

Loksa I (1969) Pokok I-Araneae I. Fauna Hungariae 97: 1-133 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

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

Szymański D M, Szymański D, Szymański H M (2023) The first record of Dysdera crocata C. L. Koch, 1838 (Araneae: Dysderidae) in Poland. Fragmenta Faunistica 65: 161-164 pdf

Vetter R S, Isbister G K (2006) Verified bites by the woodlouse spider, Dysdera crocata. Toxicon 47: 826-829 pdf

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

Wiehle H (1953) Spinnentiere oder Arachnoidea (Araneae), IX. Orthognatha-Cribellata-Haplogynae, Entelegynae (Pholcidae, Zodariidae, Oxyopidae, Mimetidae, Nesticidae). Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 42: 1-150 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

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