Giant lichen orbweaver
Araneus bicentenarius
The giant lichen orbweaver is a big spider that spins huge round webs. Its name comes from lichen, the crusty green-grey stuff that grows on tree bark. It waits at the edge of its web instead of in the middle.
Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Eastern United States and southeastern Canada, in forests
What does it eat?
It catches flying insects in its big sticky web.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Giant lichen orbweaver about 1.2 km/h (0.75 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its webs can be up to about 2.4 metres wide, wider than a door is tall.
2
Most spiders like it wait upside down in the middle of the web, but this one sits at the edge.
3
It belongs to the orb weavers, the spiders that make round wheel-shaped webs.
you asked
Most asked questions about Giant lichen orbweaver
?How big is the web of the giant lichen orbweaver?
It can be up to about 2.4 metres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Araneus bicentenarius
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Araneus bicentenarius (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 Xpda. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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.
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