Wall spider

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Wall spiders
Temporal range: Cretaceous–present
Oecobius navus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Oecobiidae
Genus: Oecobius
Lucas, 1846
Species

O. navus
 see text

Diversity
79 species

Wall spider is the common name for members of the genus Oecobius in the family Oecobiidae. The members of these several species are all small spiders that make small flat webs over crevices in walls and in similar spaces. They are cribellate spiders, meaning that they produce silk through a sieve-like plate of many parallel spigots, so that it emerges in a bundle of many invisibly fine parallel fibres with no adhesive covering to glue them together. Instead the bundles partly into separate onto woolly cables that readily entangle small prey items, such as ants, that run into them. The spider sits in middle of the web, and when it is disturbed by suitable prey, it runs out and circles the prey with more silk to tangle it further. It subdues the prey by biting it, and carries one or more items bundled in silk, seeking a refuge where it can feed.

One cosmopolitan species is O. navus (sometimes also called O. annulipes).

One species of interest is Oecobius civitas. When a spider enters the home of another spider, rather than defend itself, the resident leaves to find another one.[1]

Species[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Dawkins, Richard (1976). The Selfish Gene. p. 236.

Further reading[edit]

  • Santos, A.J. & Gonzaga, M.O. (2003). On the spider genus Oecobius Lucas, 1846 in South America (Araneae, Oecobiidae). Journal of Natural History 37(2):239-252. Abstract