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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Chelicerates (Chelicerata) » Arachnids (Arachnida) » Spiders (Araneae) » True Spiders (Araneomorphae) » Entelegynae » Cobweb Spiders (Theridiidae) » Enoplognatha

Genus Enoplognatha

Classification · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · See Also · Works Cited

A second yellow spider to ID if possible. - Enoplognatha ovata

Cobweb spider SK - Enoplognatha marmorata - female

Male Enoplognatha ovata - Enoplognatha ovata - male

Female theridiid - Enoplognatha marmorata - female

Enoplognatha caricis/marmorata - Enoplognatha - male

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)

Class Arachnida (Arachnids)

Order Araneae (Spiders)

Infraorder Araneomorphae (True Spiders)

No Taxon (Entelegynae)

Family Theridiidae (Cobweb Spiders)

Genus Enoplognatha

Numbers

10 species in BugGuide's range (North America north of Mexico)

Size

Females 3.0-9.0 mm, males 2.8-6.5 mm(1)

Identification

Careful: E. caricis has a somewhat similar abdominal pattern as E. marmorata, and their ranges overlap pretty extensively. See diagrams on page 12 of Levi 1957(2) for help distinguishing these two species.

Also, Levi 1957a(2) says that E. selma has basically the same abdominal pattern as E. caricis, but the ranges do not overlap in the case of those two species.

Range

E. caricis: Alaska and east of the Rocky Mountains. (2)(3)

E. intrepida: Alaska & all of Canada (as well as above the timberline in the Rocky Mountains), south to Minnesota and Pennsylvania. (2)(4)

E. joshua: western United States plus BC, AB, & SK; also rare in the southeastern USA. (2)(4)(3)

E. latimana: introduced to North America from Europe; appears to live along the western seaboard of N. America, plus a few spot records in southeastern Canada: QC & NS. (4)+Oxford & Reillo 1994

E. maricopa: only published records are from Arizona and eastern California. (3)

E. marmorata: widespread throughout the USA and southern Canada. (4)(3)

E. ovata: introduced to North America from Europe; northeastern states and adjacent Canada plus Pacific Coast states and British Columbia. (5)(2)

E. selma: California and southern Oregon. (2)

E. thoracica: introduced to N. America from Europe; now found in WA, OR, BC, & QC. (2)(6)(4)

E. wyuta: South Dakota to Utah, but also BC. (2)(4)

See Also

Theridion have the bottom eye row in a slight downward curve, with a gap between the rows, while in Enoplognatha the four bottom eyes lie almost straight across with hardly any space between the rows:

Theridion Enoplognatha

Also in E. ovata the carapace has a dark border line. That line is often missing in Theridion species.

Works Cited

1.	Spiders of North America: An Identification Manual D. Ubick, P. Paquin, P.E. Cushing and V. Roth (eds). 2005. American Arachnological Society.

2.	The spider genera Enoplognatha, Theridion, and Paidisca in America north of Mexico (Araneae, Theridiidae) H.W. Levi. 1957. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 112, article 1, 123 p.

3.	The spider genera Steatoda and Enoplognatha in America (Araneae, Theridiidae) Herbert Levi. 1962. Psyche, Cambridge 69: 11-36.

4.	Checklist of the spiders (Araneae) of Canada and Alaska Paquin, Buckle, Duperre, & Dondale. 2010. Zootaxa 2461: 1–170.

5.	How to Know the Spiders B. J. Kaston. 1978. WCB/McGraw-Hill.

6.	An annotated checklist of the spiders of Washington R.L. Crawford. 1988. Burke Mus. Contrib. Anthrop. Nat. Hist. 5: 1-48.

Contributed by john and jane balaban on 31 July, 2005 - 4:36pm
Additional contributions by Lynette Elliott, kschnei, v belov, Mandy Howe
Last updated 14 February, 2016 - 6:17am

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