Parasteatoda tepidariorum
| Common house spider | |
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| Common house spider and egg sac | |
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| Species: | P. tepidariorum
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| Binomial name | |
| Parasteatoda tepidariorum (C. L. Koch, 1841)
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Theridion tepidariorum | |
The common house spider, sometimes called the American house spider, is an extremely common spider in North America and South America, as its name suggests. They build their tangled web in secluded locations, which can also house eggs contained in one or more spherical sacs. Their behavior on webs is quiet and efficient.
Description
They are generally dull in appearance, with patterns consisting of brown shades for coloration, often giving a vague spotted appearance that is particularly noticeable on the legs. Their average body size is a quarter-inch (6 mm) long, but they can be an inch (2.5 cm) or more across with legs outspread. These traits combined allow the spiders to blend into the background and escape notice.
Like some other species of the family Theridiidae, P. tepidariorum shares a body shape and size that makes it similar to widow spiders, which have venom that is classified as potentially dangerous.
A male and female often share the same web for longer periods, and several females often build their webs in close proximity. However, several females will fight each other on an encounter. This species can live for more than a year after reaching maturity. Each egg sac contains from 100 to more than 400 eggs, with a single female producing up to 17 egg sacs. The hatchlings remain in the mother's web for several days.[1]
The assassin spider Mimetus puritanus (Mimetidae), and various jumping spiders such as Phidippus variegatus or Metacyrba undata prey on this species.[1] The assassin bug Stenolemus lanipes (Emesinae) feeds apparently exclusively on spiderlings of this species.[2]
Interaction with humans
These spiders are not aggressive. They are not known to bite people frequently, nor is their venom known to be dangerous to human beings. When removed from their webs their poor vision and body type renders them helpless. Their only concern seems to be to find and return to their own web or build another one. They do not wander around inside houses except to find a secure place to build a web. Since these spiders are harmless and their diet consists of pests such as flies and mosquitos, as well as other small invertebrates found in houses, tolerating their presence in human homes is beneficial.
Similar named species
In Europe Tegenaria domestica and similar species are usually known as the common house spider, which are in family Agelenidae. They often make large sheet like webs where the walls and ceiling meet, and live in a small funnel. Like almost all spiders, these are also harmless.
There is actually a wide range of very diverse spiders that bear the name "house spider" or similar around the world, obviously the only thing between them being that they occur frequently in houses. It is therefore especially in this case often more helpful to refer to them by their scientific names.
Footnotes
References
- Fitch, Henry S. (1963): Spiders of The University of Kansas Natural History Reservation and Rockefeller Experimental Tract.
- Fiedler, Ryan (2000): Achaearanea tepidariorum at Animal Diversity Web
- Platnick, Norman I. (2009): The world spider catalog, version 9.5. American Museum of Natural History.
- Hodge, M. (1984): Anti-predator behavior of Achaearanea tepidariorum (Theridiidae) towards Stenolemus lanipes (Reduviidae): preliminary observations. Journal of Arachnology 12:369–370.
External links
- Pictures of A. tepidariorum (Free for noncommercial use)
- common house spider on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
Image gallery
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P. tepidariorum -
Male and female
