Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Chelicerates (Chelicerata) » Arachnids (Arachnida) » Spiders (Araneae) » True Spiders (Araneomorphae) » Entelegynae » Orb Weavers (Araneidae) » Aculepeira

Genus Aculepeira

Aculepeira spider - Aculepeira packardi Mountain spider - Aculepeira carbonarioides Orb spider with prey - Aculepeira packardi Orange spider - Aculepeira packardi - female Orange spider - Aculepeira packardi - female Aculepeira male - Aculepeira packardi - male Spider, alpine talus, Maine - Aculepeira carbonarioides ?? - Aculepeira packardi
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Chelicerata (Chelicerates)
Class Arachnida (Arachnids)
Order Araneae (Spiders)
Infraorder Araneomorphae (True Spiders)
No Taxon (Entelegynae)
Family Araneidae (Orb Weavers)
Genus Aculepeira
Numbers
3 Species in the US & Canada.
Identification
Females:

A. aculifera -

A. carbonarioides -


A. packardi -


undescribed prairie species #1 -
Range
A. aculifera - USA to Guatemala - CO, NM
A. carbonarioides - USA, Canada, Alaska - AB, AK, BC, CO, NH, NT, PQ, UT, WY, YT
A. packardi - North America - AB, AZ, BC, CA, CO, ID, MB, MT, NF, NM, NT, NV, OR, PA, UT, WA, WY, YT
undescribed prairie species #1 & #2 - Species #1 is found in pretty much all of the western WA lowlands, and presumably beyond but I haven't collected in OR or BC. Only in grasslands (but it turns up in some pretty disturbed grasslands). Going up into the mountains you get true A. packardii (and, in the very high North Cascades, carbonarioides); species #2 is in the Columbia Basin. ~ Rod Crawford
Remarks
A. aculifera description and drawings can be found in The Neotropical and Mexican Species or the Orb-Weaver Genera Araneus, Dubliepeira, and Aculepeira.

More drawings of A. aculifera(1)
Internet References
~ kaston.transy.edu - Ranges.
Works Cited
1.Keys to the Genera of Araneid orbweavers of the Americas
H.W. Levi. 2002. The Journal of Arachnology 30:527–562.
Contributed by Lynette Elliott on 13 June, 2009 - 9:52am
Additional contributions by john and jane balaban
Last updated 16 January, 2013 - 5:50pm

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