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Sticker of Long-bellied cyclosa spider
Bug card No. 2665 of 4,939

Long-bellied cyclosa spider

Cyclosa bifida
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersHouses and farms8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The long-bellied cyclosa spider is an orb weaver, a spider that spins round webs. Its belly is long and thin, much longer than it is wide. It likes to build its web in dark corners near buildings.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
South and Southeast Asia, from India to the Philippines and New Guinea, often near buildings
Length
0.4 to 1.1 cm (0.15 to 0.43 in)
females are much bigger than males
Top speed
about 1.3 km/h (0.81 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It eats small insects that fly into its round web.
For real!Photo of Long-bellied cyclosa spider
Picture by Workman, Thomas.. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Long-bellied cyclosa spider about 1.1 cm long (0.43 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.8 secondsmoves 33 times its own body length every second

How big is Long-bellied cyclosa spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The female is about three times as long as the male.

2

Its web can be up to about 18 centimetres across and has 40 to 60 spokes.

3

It does not always sit in the middle of its web. It often sits to one side, sometimes with a leaf in the web to help it hide.

4

The female's belly is almost three times longer than it is wide, which gives the spider its name.

you asked

Most asked questions about Long-bellied cyclosa spider

?How big is the long-bellied cyclosa spider?

Females are about 11 millimetres long. Males are much smaller, under 4 millimetres.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Cyclosa bifida
Named by
Doleschall, 1859
Group
Spiders
Family
Araneidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Cyclosa bifida (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 Workman, Thomas.. 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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