Starbellied orbweaver
Acanthepeira stellata
The starbellied orbweaver is a small spider with spikes all around its round back end. Seen from above, it looks a bit like a little star. It comes out at night to spin its web.
Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
North America, from Canada to Mexico, most often near the east and west coasts
What does it eat?
It catches flying insects in its sticky web.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Starbellied 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
It builds its web standing up straight, like a window, to catch flying insects.
2
A female lays about 574 eggs at a time, each only about 1 millimetre wide.
3
Like other orb weavers, it is busy at night.
you asked
Most asked questions about Starbellied orbweaver
?Why is it called starbellied?
Because the spikes around its round back end make it look like a little star.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Acanthepeira stellata
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Starbellied spider
Where the facts come from
- Acanthepeira stellata (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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