Family Theridiidae - Cobweb Spiders

Classification · Other Common Names · Numbers · Identification · Remarks · Works Cited

Western black widow - Latrodectus hesperus - female

Northern Black Widow - Latrodectus variolus - female

Euryopis quinquemaculata; female; habitus ventral - Euryopis quinquemaculata - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Arachnida (Arachnids)

Order Araneae (Spiders)

Infraorder Araneomorphae (True Spiders)

No Taxon (Entelegynes)

Family Theridiidae (Cobweb Spiders)

Other Common Names

Cobweb Spiders

Comb-Footed Spiders

Numbers

Worldwide, there are over 2200 species in 96 genera, however family is not considered to be monophyletic.

Levi describes 234 species in 32 genera in our region. (1)

Identification

Key

Remarks

Family includes Widow Spiders, Genus Latrodectus and the Common house spider - Achaearanea tepidariorum

Three theridiid genera, Achaearanea, Anelosimus, and Theridion, are known to contain subsocial species, but the only social spiders in our area are in the genus Anelosimus.

Works Cited

1.	Spiders of North America: An Identification Manual By D. Ubick, P. Paquin, P.E. Cushing and V. Roth (eds)

Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 1:20pm
Additional contributions by Jay Barnes, Christopher Hunt, Jeff Hollenbeck, Chuck Entz, Mike Quinn, kschnei
Last updated 2 October, 2008 - 11:24am

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