Spined micrathena
The spined micrathena is a small spider with a big, knobbly back covered in spikes, like a tiny castle. It is black and white, and some have yellow on their sides. It builds round webs in the woods and is busy in the daytime.
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Fun facts
Its round web can be about 20 centimetres across.
Every night it rebuilds the middle of its web, but it keeps the outer part for several days.
It likes to move house: after about a week it leaves its web and builds a new one somewhere else.
The boys are much smaller than the girls, with fewer spikes and a flatter body.
It lives about one year. The mother lays eggs in a sac in late summer, and the babies hatch the next spring.
Most asked questions about Spined micrathena
?How big is a spined micrathena?
It is small, about 4 to 11 millimetres long. Females are much bigger than males.
?When can I see spined micrathenas?
They are most active in late summer and early autumn, in the daytime.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Micrathena gracilis
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Araneidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Araneidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Castleback orbweaver
Where the facts come from
- Spined micrathena (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 Bruce Marlin. CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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