Common garbage-line web spider
The common garbage-line web spider builds a round web and then decorates it with rubbish. It strings old bits of prey and other bits and pieces in a line down the middle of its web. Then it hides in that line so hungry birds cannot spot it.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It builds its web upright, about one metre above the ground, in bushes and plants.
It has been found living from near the sea up to almost 1,600 metres high.
It even lives on farms, in avocado, citrus and tomato fields.
Its name insulana comes from the Latin word for island, because it was first found on two small Italian islands.
In South Africa it lives in more than 30 nature parks and reserves.
Most asked questions about Common garbage-line web spider
?Why does this spider put rubbish in its web?
It hides among the rubbish so birds and other hungry animals cannot see it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cyclosa insulana
- Named by
- Costa, 1834
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Cyclosa insulana (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 i_c_riddell. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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