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Sticker of Yellow sac spider
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Yellow sac spider

Cheiracanthium punctorium
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The yellow sac spider is a pale yellow and orange spider with long legs. It does not catch food in a web. Instead it builds a big silk sac in tall grass, where it hides and keeps its eggs.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
From central Europe to Central Asia and southern Siberia, in tall grass, meadows and dry steppes
Length
1.5 cm (0.59 in)
about
Top speed
about 1.5 km/h (0.93 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting
What does it eat?
It hunts insects in the tall grass, catching them without a web.
For real!Photo of Yellow sac spider
Picture by Ludivine Lamare. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Yellow sac spider 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 Yellow sac spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The mother builds an egg sac about 4 centimetres big in high grass and guards it fiercely.

2

She keeps guarding her babies for about 17 days after they hatch.

3

The baby spiders fly away on silk threads. Static electricity, the same thing that makes your hair stand up, helps lift them.

4

There are the most of these spiders in the grassy steppes of Central Asia.

you asked

Most asked questions about Yellow sac spider

?How big is the yellow sac spider?

Its body is about 1.5 centimetres long.

?Where does the yellow sac spider live?

In tall grass and meadows from central Europe to Central Asia.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Cheiracanthium punctorium
Group
Spiders
Family
Cheiracanthiidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Cheiracanthiidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Cheiracanthium punctorium (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 Ludivine Lamare. CC BY 4.0, 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.

More from the same group: Spiders

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows