Spinybacked orb-weaver
The spinybacked orb-weaver is a small spider that looks like a tiny shield with spikes. Its back is white or yellow with black spots, and it has six pointy spines around the edge. It is wider than it is long, a bit like a crab.
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Fun facts
A female is about 5 to 9 millimetres long but 10 to 13 millimetres wide.
Its spines can be red or black, depending on the spider.
Its daily rhythm is about 19 hours long, not 24 like ours.
Males are tiny, only 2 to 3 millimetres long, with short stubby spines.
It sometimes lives right next to big colonies of other web-building spiders.
Most asked questions about Spinybacked orb-weaver
?Why does this spider have spikes?
The six spines on its back are part of its shape. They make it look like a little spiky shield.
?How long does it live?
Less than a year. It hatches, lives through the winter and dies after having babies in spring.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Gasteracantha cancriformis
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Spinybacked orbweaver
Where the facts come from
- Gasteracantha cancriformis (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 Sam Fraser-Smith from Brisbane, Australia. CC BY 2.0, 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.
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