Araneidae  Clerck, 1757 / Argiope  Audouin, 1826   5 species

Argiope trifasciata  (Forsskål, 1775)

Description
Male

Prosoma silvery with brownish to deep brown markings. Sternum light at middle, black on sides with 4 light, shiny spots. Chelicerae with 4 denticles on promargin and 3 denticles on retromargin. Leg I brown, Legs II-IV yellowish, femora and tibiae with dark annulations. Opisthosoma: dorsum silvery with dark spots and black lines in posterior area.

Body length male: 4.0-5.2 mm
Female

Opisthosoma sometimes scalloped on sides.

Body length female: 14.9-23.5 mm
Additional information

This species of American origin is not native to Europe (alien species). It had been introduced to Europe at least once and did establish.

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): North, Central and South America. Introduced to Africa, Portugal to Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, India, China, Japan, Australia (Tasmania), Pacific Is.
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.

Algeria   (Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Cyprus   (Bosmans et al., 2019c) ||| Egypt   (El-Hennawy, 2017a) ||| France / Corsica   (Ponel et al., 2017) ||| Italy   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019; Di Pompeo et al., 2011) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Pantini & Isaia, 2019; Di Pompeo et al., 2011) ||| Malta   (Pfliegler et al., 2017; Di Pompeo et al., 2011) ||| Morocco   (Bosmans, unpubl.) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain / Balearic Islands   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Tunisia   (Bosmans, 2003) |||
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

Bosmans R (2003) A checklist of the spiders of Tunisia, with description of a new species of Palliduphantes Saaristo & Tanasevitch (Araneae: Linyphiidae). Kaupia - Darmstädter Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte 12: 89-109 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. (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

Di Pompeo P, Kulczycki A, Legittimo C M, Simeon E (2011) New records for Europe: Argiope trifasciata (Forsskål, 1775) from Italy and Malta (Araneae, Araneidae). Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society 15: 205-208 pdf

El-Hennawy H K (2017a) A list of Egyptian spiders (revised in 2017). Serket 15: 167-183 pdf

Levi H W (2004) Comments and new records for the American genera Gea and Argiope with the description of new species (Araneae: Araneidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 158: 47-65 pdf

Levy G (1998a) Twelve genera of orb-weaver spiders (Araneae, Araneidae) from Israel. Israel Journal of Zoology 43: 311-365 pdf

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

Ponel P, Oger P, Poher Y, Médail F (2017) Contribution à l'inventaire des araignées de l'île Cavallo (archipel des Lavezzi, Corse-du-Sud), avec une argiope nouvelle pour la fauna franҫaise, Argiope trifasciata (Forskål, 1775) (Araneae, Araneidae) Revue Arachnologique (2) 4: 2-4 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
06-03-2024 Distribution update Detail
30-10-2023 Distribution update Detail
08-04-2021 Distribution insert Detail
14-06-2020 Datasheet update Detail
26-08-2017 Distribution update Detail
04-06-2013 Datasheet update Detail
04-06-2013 Image insert