Theridiidae  Sundevall, 1833 / Parasteatoda  Archer, 1946   4 species

Parasteatoda lunata  (Clerck, 1757)

Description

Conductor slightly twisted around its longitudinal axis. Epigyne with distinct epigynal groove, anterior margin with small tip pointing toward posterior end. Vulva with rectangularly bent entrance duct. Prosoma red-brown, almost black. Sternum and chelicerae red-brown to almost black. Legs red or yellowish, annulated with black. Opisthosoma colourful, rarely completely black. Pattern consisting of black, red, yellow and white elements.

Body length male: 2.7-5 mm
Body length female: 2.7-5.6 mm
Additional information

mostly on trunks or branches

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): Europe, Turkey, Israel, Caucasus, Russia (Europe to Far East), Iran. Introduced to South Africa
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.

Albania   (Kůrka et al., 2020) ||| Andorra   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| 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) ||| Estonia   (no references) ||| Finland   (Koponen et al., 2016) ||| France   (no references) ||| France / Corsica   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| Georgia   (Otto, 2022) ||| Germany   (no references) ||| Greece   (no references) ||| Greece / Crete   (Bosmans et al., 2013) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Ireland   (Lavery, 2019) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Kosovo   (Geci et al., 2023) ||| Latvia   (Cera, 2018) ||| Liechtenstein   (Arnold, 2001) ||| Lithuania   (no references) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019; Staudt et al., 2013) ||| Moldova   (Vasiliev & Mikhailov, 2023) ||| Montenegro   (Naumova et al., 2019a) ||| Netherlands   (no references) ||| North Macedonia   (Komnenov, 2017) ||| 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, Southern   (Otto, 2022; Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Russia, Western   (no references) ||| Serbia   (no references) ||| Slovakia   (no references) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Sweden   (Kronestedt, 2001) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| Tunisia   (Bosmans, unpubl.) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2024a) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (van Helsdingen, 2013) ||| 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

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

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

Bosmans R. (unpubl.) Provisional list of spiders of North Africa. Database excerpt Aug. 2019

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 (2024a) The checklist of the spiders of Turkey. Version 2024 [last updated 01 January 2024], online at http://www.spidersofturkey.info pdf

Geci D, Naumova M, Ibrahimi H, Grapci-Kotori L, Gashi A, Bilalli A, Musliu M (2023) Contribution to spider fauna (Arachnida: Araneae) from Bjeshkët e Nemuna mountains (Kosovo). Natura Croatica 32: 525-547 pdf

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

Helsdingen P J van (2013) A quick scan of the spider fauna of the European part of Turkey. Nieuwsbrief SPINED 33: 29-38 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 (2017) New data on spider fauna (Araneae) of Shar Mountain, north-western Macedonia. Proceedings of the 5th Congress of the Ecologists of Macedonia, with international participation (Ohrid, 19th-22nd October 2016). Special issues of the Macedonian Ecological Society 13: 44-61 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

Kůrka A, Naumova M, Indzhov S, Deltshev C (2020) New faunistic and taxonomic data on the spider fauna of Albania (Arachnida: Araneae). Arachnologische Mitteilungen 59: 8-21 pdf

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

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

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

Løvbrekke H (unpubl.)

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

Naumova M, Lazarov S, Deltshev C (2019a) Faunistic diversity of the spiders in Montenegro (Arachnida: Araneae). Ecologica Montenegrina 22: 50-89 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

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

Staudt A, Weber D, Nährig D (2013) Webspinnen (Arachnida,  Araneae) aus Höhlen des Großherzogtums Luxemburg. Ferrantia 69: 115-157 pdf

Vasiliev A I, Mikhailov K G (2023) Annotated checklist of spiders (Araneae) of the Republic of Moldova. Invertebrate Zoology 20: 307-342 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
31-01-2024 Distribution insert Detail
10-02-2023 Distribution update Detail
03-02-2021 Image insert
29-04-2020 Distribution insert Detail
24-12-2013 Distribution update Detail
15-10-2013 Distribution update Detail
28-04-2013 Distribution update Detail
15-04-2013 Distribution update Detail