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Sticker of Enamelled spider
Bug card No. 1559 of 4,939

Enamelled spider

Plebs bradleyi
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The enamelled spider is a common orb-weaving spider from eastern Australia. Its round back is so shiny that it looks like it has been painted with glossy enamel. Some are a pure jade green.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Eastern Australia and Tasmania, in gardens and bushes
Length
0.8 to 1.8 cm (0.31 to 0.71 in)
females are much bigger than males
Top speed
about 1.6 km/h (0.99 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It catches small flying insects in its round web.
For real!Photo of Enamelled spider
Picture by Poyt448 Peter Woodard. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Enamelled spider about 1.8 cm long (0.71 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.2 secondsmoves 25 times its own body length every second

How big is Enamelled spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It hunts in its web at night and often hides in nearby plants during the day.

2

It builds a sloping round web about one metre above the ground.

3

Its colours change from one part of Australia to another, and in some places different colour forms live side by side.

4

Its egg sac is round and made of woolly red brown silk, and each egg is only 1 millimetre wide.

you asked

Most asked questions about Enamelled spider

?What does the enamelled spider eat?

Small flying insects caught in its web.

?When is the enamelled spider active?

At night. In the day it usually hides in plants near its web.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Plebs bradleyi
Group
Spiders
Family
Araneidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Plebs bradleyi (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Poyt448 Peter Woodard. Public domain, 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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More from the same group: Spiders

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

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