Common dewdrop spider
The common dewdrop spider is a tiny spider with a sneaky way of getting dinner. It does not bother catching its own food. Instead it moves into the web of a bigger spider and steals bits of its prey.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Scientists call an animal that steals food from others a kleptoparasite, and that is exactly what this spider is.
Only a few spiders in its group catch prey in their own webs. Most of them are thieves.
It has travelled with people to faraway islands such as St Helena, the Seychelles and Hawaii.
When it was first described in 1841, it was put in a different group of spiders.
Most asked questions about Common dewdrop spider
?What does the dewdrop spider eat?
It sneaks into other spiders' webs and steals the insects they have caught.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Argyrodes argyrodes
- Named by
- Walckenaer, 1841
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Theridiidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Theridiidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Argyrodes argyrodes (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 Simon. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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