Asian spinybacked orbweaver
Thelacantha brevispina
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersRainforests and jungles8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin
The Asian spinybacked orbweaver is a small spider with a hard, wide back that has six sharp spikes. Most have two big white spots on top, with black, brown and white patterns around them. It builds round webs to catch food.
Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Southeast Asia, India, Japan, Madagascar and Australia, and it was brought to Hawaii
Length
0.6 to 1 cm (0.24 to 0.39 in)
the female; the male is only 3 to 5 mmWhat does it eat?
It catches small flying insects in its round web.
How big is it?
How long is it?
💅small enough to sit on your fingernail🍚as long as 1.5 grains of rice in a row🍽️could run across a dinner table in 3 seconds⚡moves 33 times its own body length every second
How big is Asian spinybacked orbweaver compared to YOU?
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How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Asian spinybacked 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
The female is about twice as big as the male.
2
The six spikes on its back make it look like a tiny spiky shield.
3
It is the only species in its genus.
4
It has often been mixed up with a similar spiny spider from America.
you asked
Most asked questions about Asian spinybacked orbweaver
?How big is the Asian spinybacked orbweaver?
The female is about 6 to 10 mm long, and the male only 3 to 5 mm.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Thelacantha brevispina
- Named by
- van Hasselt, 1882
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Thelacantha (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 Chen-Pan Liao. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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