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Sticker of Pan-web orbweaver
Bug card No. 3248 of 4,939

Pan-web orbweaver

Cyrtophora exanthematica
Name means: “exanthematica comes from a Greek word for pimple, because of how its body looks”
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersRainforests and jungles8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The pan-web orbweaver is a spider with two little bumps at the back end that look like tails. It builds a web shaped like a bowl or a frying pan, with a tangle of threads on top. It can be red, pink, orange, yellow, brown, grey or even black.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Tropical Asia and Australia, in trees and bushes
Length
0.3 to 1.5 cm (0.14 to 0.59 in)
Top speed
about 1.5 km/h (0.93 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless

Spiders are venomous! Read about spider venom on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
It catches flying insects that get tangled in its fine web.
For real!Photo of Pan-web orbweaver
Picture by Keisotyo. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Pan-web orbweaver about 1.5 cm long (0.59 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 2.5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.4 secondsmoves 28 times its own body length every second

How big is Pan-web orbweaver compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its web is not sticky at all. Insects get caught in its very fine mesh instead.

2

A mother spider lies stretched over her egg sac to guard it, and she does not eat until the babies hatch two or three weeks later.

3

It cleans its web at night, but keeps a few bits of leaves in it to help it hide.

4

The females are much bigger than the males, up to 1.5 centimetres long.

5

Its web can be about half a metre across, as wide as a big pizza tray.

you asked

Most asked questions about Pan-web orbweaver

?Why is it called a double-tailed tent spider?

Because it has two blunt bumps at the end of its body that look like little tails.

?What does its web look like?

A finely meshed bowl or pan shape with a messy tangle of threads above it.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Cyrtophora exanthematica
Named by
Doleschall, 1859
Group
Spiders
Family
Araneidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Double-tailed tent spider, Dome spider, Bowl spider, Scoop-web spider

Where the facts come from

  1. Cyrtophora exanthematica (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 Keisotyo. 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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Honey jarfor grown-ups