Oecobiidae  Blackwall, 1862 / Uroctea  Dufour, 1820   5 species

Uroctea durandi (Latreille, 1809)

Description
Male

Prosoma 3.1 mm long. Colouration as in female, but a little lighter. Opisthosoma black with 5 yellow spots.

Body length male: 6-10 mm
Female

Prosoma black or dark red-brown, 4.1 mm long. Eyes: AME very large, PME much farther from each other than from adjacent laterals. AME one-third diameter apart. Opisthosoma black with 5 yellow spots. Legs black or red-brown.

Body length female: 15 mm
Additional information

In garrigue, dry habitats, holm oak forests, heathlands, under bark, also in buildings. Striking big, chubby species, under stones where it builds a typical "tent-roof-net" with radially pointed margins.

Distribution
  Presence
  Not established
  No data
Global distribution (WSC 2026): Mediterranean
Phenology
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
 male  female
Females probably all the year, males in spring, autumn and winter.
Figures
Distribution List
Albania   (Deltshev et al., 2011b) ||| Algeria   (Benhacene et al., 2023) ||| Andorra   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Bulgaria   (Blagoev et al., 2018) ||| Croatia   (Milosevic, 2002) ||| Cyprus   (Bosmans et al., 2019c) ||| Egypt   (El-Hennawy, 2017a) ||| France   (Le Peru, 2007) ||| Greece   (Bosmans & Chatzaki, 2005) ||| Greece / Crete   (Bosmans & Chatzaki, 2005) ||| Italy   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sardinia   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Italy / Sicily   (Isaia et al., 2025) ||| Kosovo   (Geci et al., 2023) ||| Montenegro   (Naumova et al., 2019a) ||| Morocco   (Lecigne et al., 2025) ||| North Macedonia   (Komnenov, 2014) ||| Portugal   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Slovenia   (Kostanjšek & Kuntner, 2015) ||| Spain   (Branco et al., 2019) ||| Tunisia   (Kmira et al., 2025) ||| Turkey (Asia)   (Danışman et al., 2025a) ||| United Kingdom   (Selden, 2003; Lavery, 2019) |||
References

Baum S (1974) Zum "Cribellaten-Problem": Die Genitalstrukturen der Oecobiinae und Urocteinae (Arach.: Aran.: Oecobiidae). Abhandlungen und Verhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins in Hamburg (NF) 16: 101-153 pdf

Bellmann H (1997) Kosmos-Atlas Spinnentiere Europas. Franckh-Kosmos Stuttgart, 304 pp. 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, 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, 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

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

Deltshev C, Vrenozi B, Blagoev G, Lazarov S (2011b) Spiders of Albania – faunistic and zoogeographical review (Arachnida: Araneae). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica 63: 125-144 pdf

Drensky P (1939) Die Spinnenfauna Bulgariens. III. Unterordnung Arachnomorphae, II Gruppe Trionychia; Familien: Urocteidae, Uloboridae, Sicaridae, Pholcidae, Eresidae. Izvestiya na Tsarskite Prirodonauchni Instituti v Sofia 12: 231-252 pdf

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

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

Kmira G, Nasri-Ammar, Petillon J, Bosmans R (2025) Catalog of the spiders of Tunisia (Arachnida: Araneae). Zootaxa 5641: 1-95 pdf

Komnenov M (2014) Spider fauna of the Osogovo Mt. Range, Northeastern Macedonia. Fauna Balkana 2: 1-267 pdf

Kostanjšek R, Kuntner M (2015) Araneae Sloveniae: a national spider species checklist. ZooKeys 474: 1-91 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

Lecigne S, Moutaouakil S, Lips J (2025) Contribution to the knowledge of the spider fauna of Morocco (Arachnida: Araneae) – second note. On new species and new records from caves and miscellaneous terrestrial ecosystems. Journal of the Belgian Arachnological Society 40(1, supplement): 1-184 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

Pesarini C (unpubl.)

Selden P (2003) Record of the Mediterranean spider Uroctea durandi (Latreille 1809) in Britain. Newsletter of the British Arachnological Society 96: 4 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

Updates
05-09-2025 Distribution update Detail
14-05-2025 Image insert
27-04-2025 Distribution update Detail
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04-12-2013 Distribution update Detail
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