Theridion mystaceum L. Koch, 1870
Description
Male
Conductor laterally with small projecting tip. Palp: tibia 0.5 times as long as bulb. Prosoma 1.1 mm long. Characters as in female, but with epigastric area markedly bulgung.
Body length male: 2-3 mmFemale
Epigyne with a circular opening, copulatory openings well visible, more apart from each other than in T. betteni. Vulva with entrance ducts in numerous narrow loops. Prosoma yellowish-brown, tinged with black, eye region darker. Prosoma 1-1.2 mm long. Colouration and pattern as in T. melanurum. Sternum and chelicerae brown, sometimes almost black. Legs grey-yellow, annulated with dark brown. Opisthosoma very variable, mostly spotted brown, ventrally dark brown with white spot behind epigastric furrow.
Body length female: 2-3 mmAdditional information
Mainly in forests: coniferous, deciduous or mixed forests, also in heathlands, marshes, cereal fields, buildings, on walls of houses, bushes in meadows, hedges, on tree trunks and evergreen bushes.
Distribution
Phenology
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
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Figures
Pedipalp, ventral view
(Roberts 1995)
Pedipalp, ventral view
(Locket & Millidge 1953)
Pedipalp, ventral view
(Locket et al. 1974)
Pedipalp, ventral view
(Vanuytven 2014)
Pedipalp, retrolateral view
(Løvbrekke unpubl.)
Pedipalp, retrolateral view
(Domènech et al. 2020)
Pedipalp, ventral view
(Domènech et al. 2020)
Pedipalp, ventral view
(Breitling 2020)
Embolus and conductor
(Locket et al. 1974)
Embolus
(Domènech et al. 2020)
Habitus, dorsal view
(Domènech et al. 2020)
Epigyne
(Aakra 2000a)
Epigyne
(Roberts 1995)
Epigyne
(Locket & Millidge 1953)
Epigyne, ventral view
(Vanuytven 2014)
Epigyne
(Løvbrekke unpubl.)
Vulva
(Aakra 2000a)
Vulva
(Heimer & Nentwig 1991)
Vulva
(Locket et al. 1974)
Vulva, ventral view
(Vanuytven 2014)
Vulva
(Løvbrekke unpubl.)
Vulva
(Fjellberg unpubl.)
Vulva, dorsal view
(Domènech et al. 2020)
Vulva, ventral view
(Domènech et al. 2020)
Habitus, dorsal view
(Domènech et al. 2020)
Habitus
(Locket & Millidge 1953)
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.
References
Aakra K (2000a) New records of spiders (Araneae) from Norway with notes on epigynal characters of Philodromus fuscomarginatus (De Geer) (Philodromidae) and Araneus sturmi (Hahn) (Araneidae). Norwegian Journal of Entomology 47: 77-88 
Aakra K, Hauge E (2003) Checklist of Norwegian spiders (Arachnida: Araneae), including Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Norwegian Journal of Entomology 50: 109-129
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
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)
Bosmans R, Van Keer K (2017) Een herziene soortenlijst van de Belgische spinnen (Araneae). Nieuwsbrief van de Belgische Arachnologische Vereniging 32: 39-69
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
Breitling R (2020) South European spiders from the Duffey collection in the Manchester Museum (Arachnida: Araneae). Arachnology 18: 333-362
Cawley M (2001) Distribution records for uncommon spiders (Araneae) including five species new to Ireland. Bulletin of the Irish Biogeographical Society 25: 135-143
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
Deltshev C, Vrenozi B, Blagoev G, Lazarov S (2011b) Spiders of Albania – faunistic and zoogeographical review (Arachnida: Araneae). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 63: 125-144
Demircan N, Topçu A (2016) First records for spider fauna of the European part of Turkey (Araneae). Serket 15: 85-91
Domènech M, Crespo L C, Enguídanos A, Arnedo M A (2020) Mitochondrial discordance in closely related Theridion spiders (Araneae, Theridiidae), with description of a new species of the T. melanurum group. Zoosystematics and Evolution 96: 159-173
Fjellberg A (unpubl.)
Grbac I, Katušić L, Lukić M (2019) Catalogue of spiders (Araneae) deposited in the Croatian Natural History Museum. Natura Croatica 28: 185-269
Heimer S, Nentwig W (1991) Spinnen Mitteleuropas. Paul Parey Berlin
Helsdingen P J van, IJland S, Komnenov M (2018) Inventory of the spiders (Araneae) of the border region of northern Greece with Albania and FYR Macedonia. Nieuwsbrief SPINED 37: 5-23
Hermann E (1998) Die Spinnen (Araneae) ausgewählter Halbtrockenrasen im Osten Luxemburgs. Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes Luxembourgeois 99: 189-199
Ivanov V V (2013) The checklist of Belarusian spiders (Arachnida, Araneae). Zoology and Ecology 4: 293-311
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
Kostanjšek R, Kuntner M (2015) Araneae Sloveniae: a national spider species checklist. ZooKeys 474: 1-91
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
Kronestedt T (2001) Checklist of Spiders (Araneae) in Sweden [Preliminary version February 2001]
Lavery A (2019) A revised checklist of the spiders of Great Britain and Ireland. Arachnology 18: 196-212
Lazarov S (2004) A contribution to the study of spiders (Araneae) in Macedonia. Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 56: 155-166
Le Peru B (2007) Catalogue et répartition des araignées de France. Revue Arachnologique 16: 1-468
Lissner J (2016c) A small study of the Corsican spider and pseudoscorpion fauna (Araneae, Pseudoscorpiones). Nieuwsbrief SPINED 36: 5-15
Locket G H, Millidge A F (1953) British spiders. Vol. II. Ray Society, London, 449 pp.
Locket G H, Millidge A F, Merrett P (1974) British Spiders, Volume III. Ray Society, London, 315 pp.
Løvbrekke H (unpubl.)
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
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
Polchaninova N, Prokopenko E (2019) An updated checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Left-Bank Ukraine. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 57: 60-64 & App
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.
Roberts M J (1995) Collins Field Guide: Spiders of Britain & Northern Europe. HarperCollins, London, 383 pp.
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
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
Samu F, Szinetár C (1999) Bibliographic check list of the Hungarian spider fauna. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 11: 161-184
Vanuytven H (2014) Theridion asopi n. sp., a new member of the Theridion melanurum group (Araneae: Theridiidae) in Europe. Arachnology 16: 127-134
Vasiliev A I, Mikhailov K G (2023) Annotated checklist of spiders (Araneae) of the Republic of Moldova. Invertebrate Zoology 20: 307-342
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
Updates
| 08-05-2024 | Distribution update | Detail |
| 09-01-2024 | Distribution update | Detail |
| 26-07-2020 | Image insert | |
| 19-07-2020 | Distribution update | Detail |
| 05-07-2020 | Distribution insert | Detail |
| 06-05-2020 | Image insert | |
| 06-05-2020 | Distribution update | Detail |
| 18-03-2020 | Distribution insert | Detail |
| 06-01-2020 | Image insert | |
| 28-06-2019 | Distribution update | Detail |
| 13-03-2019 | Image insert | |
| 05-02-2019 | Distribution update | Detail |
| 16-05-2018 | Distribution update | Detail |
| 28-12-2016 | Datasheet update | Detail |
| 28-12-2016 | Distribution update | Detail |