Uloboridae  Thorell, 1869 / Uloborus  Latreille, 1806   3 species

Uloborus plumipes  Lucas, 1846

Description

Prosoma densely haired, without pronounced longitudinal stripes. Legs brown haired, annulated with white-bluish. Tibia I female: with strikingly long, black plumose hairs. Opisthosoma light brown with darker median line, densely haired, dorsally with 2 humps in anterior part, 2 white spots between them.

Body length male: 3-4 mm
Body length female: 3-6 mm
Additional information

In tropics and subtropics in the Old World, in Mediterranean area in Italy and France in the open land, in Great Britain, Central and North Europe imported to greenhouses in many cases. They were thought to develop parthenogenetically in greenhouses, as it seems that only females occur, but this must be doubted because of the cryptic living of males.

Oxford (2011) showed convincingly that Uloborus plumipes is not parthenogenetic in urban populations in Europe (and probably nowhere else).

Since a few decades, this species shows some spreading tendencies within Europe. Nevertheless, it shall not be listed as alien or invasive because it is native for Europe.

Distribution
  Presence
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2024): Europe, Africa, Yemen, Iran, Pakistan. Introduced to Argentina, Philippines, Japan
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.

Algeria   (Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Austria   (no references) ||| Azerbaijan   (Otto, 2022) ||| Belgium   (Bosmans & Van Keer, 2017) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Cyprus   (Bosmans et al., 2019c) ||| Czechia   (Růžička & Řezáč, 2022a) ||| Denmark   (no references) ||| Egypt   (Bosmans, unpubl.) ||| Faroe Islands   (Lissner et al., 2016b) ||| Finland   (Koponen et al., 2016) ||| France   (no references) ||| France / Corsica   (no references) ||| 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) ||| Luxembourg   (Kreuels et al., 2019) ||| Malta   (Pfliegler et al., 2017) ||| Netherlands   (no references) ||| Norway   (Aakra & Hauge, 2003) ||| Poland   (Rozwałka & Stanska, 2008) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Romania   (no references) ||| Russia, Central   (no references) ||| Russia, Eastern   (no references) ||| Slovakia   (no references) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Spain / Balearic Islands   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Sweden   (Jonsson, 1998; Kronestedt, 2001) ||| Switzerland   (no references) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2024) ||| Turkey (Europe)   (Danışman et al., 2024) ||| 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

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, 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, 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, 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

Brignoli P M (1979f) Contribution à la connaissance des Uloboridae paléarctiques (Araneae). Revue Arachnologique 2: 275-282 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

Horak P, Kropf C (1999) Landeskundlich bedeutsame Spinnenfunde in der Steiermark (Arachnida: Aranea). Mitteilungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereines für Steiermark 129: 253-268 pdf

Jonsson L J (1998) Toftspindeln – en spindelart som invaderat Europas växthus [The feather-Iegged spider, Uloborus plumipes – invading European greenhouses]. Fauna och Flora 93: 119-124 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

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

Lissner J, Jensen J-K, Hansen L J, Simonsen W, Kelduni R, Nissen K (2016b) An updated checklist of spiders (Araneae) of the Faroe Islands. Norwegian Journal of Entomology 63: 197-240 pdf

Meng (unpupl.)

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

Moscaliuc L A (2013) Contributions to the knowledge of Romanian spider fauna. Steps towards an updated checklist. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 56: 135-142 pdf

Otto S (2022) Caucasian spiders. A faunistic database on the spiders of the Caucasus Ecoregion. Database version 02.2022. Internet: caucasus-spiders.info.

Oxford G (2011) Death of an urban myth - parthenogenesis in Uloborus plumipes. Newsletter of the British Arachnological Society 121: 6-8 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

Polchaninova N Y, Prokopenko E V (2013) Catalogue of the spiders (Arachnida, Aranei) of Left-Bank Ukraine. Arthropoda Selecta (Suppl.) 2: 1-268 pdf

Polchaninova N, Prokopenko E (2019) An updated checklist of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) of Left-Bank Ukraine. Arachnologische Mitteilungen 57: 60-64 & App pdf

Roberts M J (1998) Spinnengids. Tirion, Baarn, Netherlands, 397 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

Suvák M (2013) Invasive spider Uloborus plumipes Lucas, 1846 (Araneae: Uloboridae), new to Slovakia. Folia Faunistica Slovaca 18: 39-45 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
09-01-2023 Gallery image insert
21-05-2020 Distribution update Detail
06-05-2020 Distribution insert Detail
18-05-2018 Distribution update Detail
18-05-2018 Datasheet update Detail
26-10-2015 Distribution update Detail
24-04-2015 Distribution update Detail
15-10-2013 Distribution update Detail