Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Family Oligotomidae

It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's - Oligotoma nigra - male A.whattizzit - Haploembia solieri unknown insect - Oligotoma nigra unknown insect - Oligotoma nigra Oligotomidae? - Oligotoma saundersii Black Webspinner? - Oligotoma nigra - male unknown - Oligotoma Male Webspinner - Oligotoma nigra - male
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Embiidina (Webspinners)
Family Oligotomidae
Explanation of Names
Oligotomidae Enderlein 1909
Numbers
3 spp. in 2 genera in our area (all adventive), ~45 spp. in 6 genera total(1)
Size
5-10+ mm
Identification
most adult males have wings; all females and immature individuals are wingless
Haploembia solieri: body pale pinkish, shading to brownish anteriorly (males not found in CA, only parthenogenetic wingless females)
Oligotoma nigra: adults at least 9 mm long, uniformly blackish or dark brownish; only males have wings
O. saundersii: dark brownish, similar to O. nigra
see(2)
Range
warmer regions of the Old World, esp. Oriental & Australasian (+a dozen Afrotropical); in our area:(3)
Haploembia solieri: native to se. Europe, now widespread broadly distributed around the Mediterranean basin; in our area, w./sw. US (TX-CA-UT-OR)
Oligotoma nigra: native to India, now widespread in the tropics globally; in our area, sw. US (TX-CA-UT)
O. saundersii: native to so. Asia, now widespread in the tropics globally; in our area, FL-TX