Common bark spider
The common bark spider is a master of hiding. Its brown, bumpy body looks just like a piece of tree bark. By day it sits very still on a branch, and at night it builds a big round web between trees.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
In the morning it takes its web down and goes to rest on a nearby branch.
It folds its hairy legs tightly against its body, so it looks like a little lump on the branch.
Seen from below, its legs have clear zebra stripes.
It has four pointy bumps in a row on the front part of its body.
It lives in all nine provinces of South Africa, from the seaside up to mountains almost 2,800 metres high.
Most asked questions about Common bark spider
?Where does the common bark spider live?
Across Africa, from Cameroon and Ethiopia down to South Africa, and on islands such as Madagascar.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Caerostris sexcuspidata
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1793
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Horned bark spider
Where the facts come from
- Caerostris sexcuspidata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Peter Webb. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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