Nuctenea umbratica
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| Nuctenea umbratica Clerck, 1757 |
The Walnut Orb-Weaver Spider (Nuctenea umbratica) is a spider of the Araneidae family.
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[edit] Etymology
The species name umbratica means "living in the shadows" in Latin.
[edit] Description
The walnut orb-weaver spider is very wide and flattened, with a leathery skin. Its color ranges from red brown and grey brown to black with a dark, yellowish to yellow-greenish leaf-like fleckled marking on its opisthosoma, where small dents are visible. These are the onsets of muscles that flatten the abdomen.
Female N. umbratica can reach up to 15mm in size, the males grow only up to 8mm.
The spider hides during the day outside of buildings in wall crevices, or under loose bark. They are very common in Central Europe; females occur all year long, while males appear mostly during summer.
In the evening the spider constructs an orb-web that can be up to 70cm in diameter. A signaling thread leads from the web to her hiding place. After dusk she sits in the web's center.
[edit] References
- Levi, Herbert Walter: The orb-weaver genera Araniella und Nuctenea (Araneae: Araneidae). in: Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, vol. 146, no. 6, Cambridge 1974. ISSN 0027-4100
