Nuctenea umbratica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nuctenea umbratica

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Family:	Araneidae
Genus:	Nuctenea
Species:	N. umbratica

Binomial name

Nuctenea umbratica
(Clerck, 1757)

Synonyms

Araneus umbraticus
Aranea sexpunctata
Aranea swammerdamii
Aranea cicatricosa
Epeira umbraticola
Aranea impressa
Aranea cicatricosa
Aranea umbratica
Aranea umbraticola
Aranea litterata
Epeira umbratica
Epeira cinerea
Epeira thomisoides
Chinestela umbratica
Cathaistela umbratica

The Walnut Orb-Weaver Spider (Nuctenea umbratica) is a spider of the Araneidae family.

1 Name
2 Description
3 References
4 External links
5 Additional photographs

[edit] Name

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 15 mm in size, the males grow only up to 8 mm.

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 70 cm 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