Eastern parson spider
The eastern parson spider is a fast, dark spider with a white mark on its back. The mark looks like the old neck scarf that priests wore long ago, and that is how it got its name. It does not make webs. Instead it runs after its food at night.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It spends the day hiding in a little silk tent and comes out at night to hunt.
It does not spin a web to catch food. It runs after its prey like a tiny hunter.
It comes into houses more often than many other spiders, usually while looking for food.
You will mostly see it on the floor or low on a wall, because it is a ground spider.
Its front half is covered in black hairs and its back half in grey hairs.
Most asked questions about Eastern parson spider
?Why is it called a parson spider?
The white mark on its back looks like the scarf that parsons, or priests, wore around their necks long ago.
?Does the parson spider make a web?
No. It hides in a small silk shelter by day and chases its prey at night.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Herpyllus ecclesiasticus
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Gnaphosidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Gnaphosidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Herpyllus ecclesiasticus (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 Philip N. Cohen. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
European garden spider
Goliath birdeater
Brown recluse
Redback spider
Yellow garden spider
Bold jumping spider
European yellow-tailed scorpion
Brown house moth
Asian malaria mosquito
Tropical house cricket
Florida bark scorpion
Cowpea weevil