Agelenidae  C. L. Koch, 1837 / Eratigena  Bolzern, Burckhardt & Hänggi, 2013   26 species

Eratigena agrestis (Walckenaer, 1802)

Description

Cymbium and bulbus robust. Tibial apophysis broad. Epigyne with posteriorly protruding bulge. Prosoma yellow-brown, with darker spots and fine stripes. Sternum brown, with broad dark margin. Legs yellow-brown, unicoloured. Opisthosoma grey-brown, dorsally with brighter vague pattern.

Main characteristics

Body length male: 9.0-10.0 mm
Body length female: 10.0-15.0 mm
Additional information

In warm places between stones and plants, rarely in buildings too. Brought to the Pacific Coast of the USA around 1900 where it was called "hobo spider" and feared, because it is supposed to be more poisonous than in Europe, synanthrop. First record in GB in 1949, synanthropic. No medical problems known from Europe. The american reports later turned out to be a hoax, not verifiable.

Frequency: More frequent in Southern Europe

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2026): Europe to Central Asia. Introduced to USA, Canada
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   (Thaler, 1997b) ||| Azerbaijan   (Otto, 2022) ||| Belarus   (Ivanov, 2013) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bosnia and Herzegovina   (Kuralt et al., 2025) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (Scharff & Gudik-Sørensen, 2006) ||| France   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| Georgia   (Otto, 2022) ||| Germany   (Blick et al., 2016) ||| Greece   (Bosmans & Chatzaki, 2005) ||| Greece / Crete   (Bosmans et al., 2013) ||| Hungary   (Samu & Szinetár, 1999) ||| Ireland   (Cawley, 2001; Lavery, 2019) ||| Italy   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Kosovo   (Geci & Naumova, 2021b) ||| Lithuania   (Biteniekytė & Rėlys, 2012) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Moldova   (Vasiliev & Mikhailov, 2023) ||| Montenegro   (Naumova et al., 2019a) ||| Netherlands   (van Helsdingen, 2025a) ||| North Macedonia   (Blagoev, 2002) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka & Stanska, 2008) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (Weiss & Petrișor, 1999) ||| Russia, Central   (Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Russia, Eastern   (no references) ||| Russia, Southern   (Otto, 2022; Ponomarev, 2022) ||| Serbia   (Stanković, 2025) ||| Slovakia   (Gajdoš et al., 1999) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain / Balearic Islands   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Switzerland   (Maurer & Hänggi, 1990) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2025a) ||| Ukraine   (Polchaninova & Prokopenko, 2019) ||| United Kingdom   (Lavery, 2019) |||
References

Biteniekytė M, Rėlys V (2012) The checklist of Lithuanian spiders (Arachnida: Araneae). Biologija 57: 148-158 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, Finch O-D, Harms K H, Kiechle J, Kielhorn K-H , Kreuels M, Malten A, Martin D, Muster C, Nährig D, Platen R, Rödel I, Scheidler M, Staudt A, Stumpf H, Tolke D (2016) Rote Liste und Gesamtartenliste der Spinnen (Arachnida: Araneae) Deutschlands. 3. Fassung, Stand April 2008, einzelne Änderungen und Nachträge bis August 2015. Naturschutz und Biologische Vielfalt 70/4: 383-510 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, 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

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

Brignoli P M (1971g) Contributo alla conoscenza degli Agelenidae Italiani (Araneae). Fragmenta Entomologica 8: 57-142 pdf

Cawley M (2001) Distribution records for uncommon spiders (Araneae) including five species new to Ireland. Bulletin of the Irish Biogeographical Society 25: 135-143 pdf

Dahl M (1931) Spinnentiere oder Arachnoidea, VI: Familie Agelenidae. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 23: 1-136 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

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

Geci D, Ibrahimi H, Naumova M, Bilalli A, Kolbmüller S, Musliu M, Grapci-Kotori L, Gashi A, Schäffer S, Wagner M (2025b) Description of a new Eratigena Bolzern, Burckhardt & Hänggi, 2013 (Arachnida: Araneae: Agelenidae) from the Balkans based on an integrative approach. Zootaxa 5636: 144-162 pdf

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

Helsdingen P J van (2025a) Catalogus van de Nederlandse spinnen. Versie 2025.1. 249 pp. pdf

Isaia M (2003) Primo contributo allo studio dei ragni del Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo (Araneae). Fragmenta Entomologica 35: 19-26 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

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

Kuralt Ž, Pajek Arambašič N, Kostanjšek R (2025) Contribution to the knowledge of spiders (Araneae) of the upper course of the Neretva River in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Natura Sloveniae 27: 114-122 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

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

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.

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

Scharff N, Gudik-Sørensen O (2006) Katalog over Danmarks edderkopper (Araneae). Catalogue of the spiders of Denmark (Araneae). Entomologiske Meddelelser 74: 3-71 pdf

Stanković B (2025) Checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Serbia. In: Proceedings, 1st International Nature & Environment Conservation and Protected Areas Congress, Antalya. pp. 649-679. [note: Kosovo is included] pdf

Thaler K (1997b) Beiträge zur Spinnenfauna von Nordtirol - 3: "Lycosaeformia" (Agelenidae, Hahniidae, Argyronetidae, Pisauridae, Oxyopidae, Lycosidae) und Gnaphosidae (Arachnida: Araneida). Veröffentlichungen des Museum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck 75/76: 97-146 pdf

Vasiliev A I, Mikhailov K G (2023) Annotated checklist of spiders (Araneae) of the Republic of Moldova. Invertebrate Zoology 20: 307-342 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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