Common candy-striped spider Lat. “Enoplognatha ovata“

Enoplognatha ovata is a species of spiders belonging to the family Theridiidae.

Description

This spider, reaching a length of 6 mm (excluding legs), they have translucent legs and the globular abdomen is extremely variable in colour and pattern: the background colour is usually white, cream or green and can be marked with a row of dark spots, a broad red stripe or with two red stripes in a v-shape. Their coloration can usually be categorized in 3 variations “Lineata” with plant yellow or cream opisthosoma. “Redimita” which has a pair of dorsal red stripes and “Ovata” in which the entire dorsal area is red. The last variation is the rarest, only occurring sporadically in populations.

To the naked eye, they are basically indistinguishable from E. latimana, which can only be distinguished by the male palpal bulb and the epigyne of females, in mature spiders. The same patterns mentioned also occur E. latimana, with the “lineata” being the most common of them.

Distribution

It is native to Europe and has also been introduced to North America, and it is notably found in Lithuania. In the US it is found from coast to coast, although not as far south as Mexico. It is found in open fields, in forest, and in roadsides, usually found in the underside of leaves and low growing vegetation. Their population usually occurs in dense clumps, sometimes referred to as colonies.

Ecology

The female deposits its eggs in a white sac and after several days the sac gradually changes colour to a blue/grey. This is secreted within a rolled-up leaf fastened with silk and the female guards it until the eggs hatch. Its web is usually a small assortment of tangled threads, found in the underside of a leaf. The edges of said leaf are usually pulled down slightly with the threads, creating a hide. This can also be used to help spot their webs.

References

Preston-Mafham, Ken (1998). Spiders: Compact Study Guide and Identifier. Angus Books. ISBN 978-1-904594-93-2.

Ancestry Graph

Further Information

„Common candy-striped spider“ on wikipedia.org

„Common candy-striped spider“ on iNaturalist.org

Copyright

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Enoplognatha ovata the free encyclopedia Wikipedia which is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). On Wikipedia a list of authors is available.