Bowl and doily spider

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Bowl and doily spider

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Linyphiidae
Genus: Frontinella
Species: F. communis
Binomial name
Frontinella communis
(Hentz, 1850)

The bowl and doily spider, Frontinella communis, is a species of sheet weaver. It is a small spider, about 4 mm (0.2 inch) long, that weaves a fairly complex sheet web system consisting of an inverted dome shaped web, or "bowl", suspended above a horizontal sheet web, or "doily", hence its common name. The spider hangs from the underside of the "bowl", and bites through the web small flies, gnats and other small insects that fall down into the non-sticky webbing. The webs are commonly seen in weedy fields and in shrubs, and may often contain both a male and a female spider in late summer - like many linyphiids, Frontinella may cohabitate for some time.

The scientific name F. pyramitela is commonly seen, but this is a junior synonym[1].

Close-up.
Close-up.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Platnick 2007

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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