Common kitespider
The common kitespider has a hard, shiny body in bright colours, with six spikes around the edge. It looks like a tiny kite or a little shield. It sits in its round web during the day, high up between trees and bushes.
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Fun facts
The thread that holds up its web is often longer than the web itself, so the spider seems to float in the air.
It is busy during the day and does not take its web down.
It sometimes decorates its web with little tufts of silk.
The males are much smaller, less colourful and have no spikes.
It has been found from near the sea up to 1,710 metres high.
Most asked questions about Common kitespider
?How big is the common kitespider?
The female is about 8 to 10 millimetres long. The male is much smaller.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Gasteracantha versicolor
- Named by
- Walckenaer, 1841
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Common kite spider
Where the facts come from
- Gasteracantha versicolor (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 JMK. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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