Commonly known as the Hackled Orbweavers, belonging to the family Uloboridae, this family of spiders are also known as Cribellate Orb Weavers. They are also the only spider family without venom.
All members of this family of arachnids produce a feathery, fuzzy silk called cribellate (or hackled) silk. These spiders do not use an adhesive on their orb webs, but rather the very fine fibers on each strand of silk tend to ensnare prey. Uloboridae webs often have a stabilimentum or zig-zag pattern through the center.1
This family is found almost worldwide, with some genera found in Oceania, New Zealand and Australia. Oceania and Australia genera include:
- Miagrammopes
- Philoponella
- Purumitra
- Uloborus
- Zosis
Check out the feathery, fuzzy silk called cribellate (or hackled) silk, and the stabilimentum, an almost zig-zag pattern through the centre. Whilst the following Hackled Orbweaver looks like it has a head, the” “dark (black) looking head” is actually the remains of the prey, that the Hackled Orbweaver is consuming.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Chelicerata
- Class: Arachnida
- Order: Araneae
- Infraorder: Araneomorphae
- Family: Uloboridae
- Diversity:
19 genera, 337 species
Footnote & References
- Uloboridae, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uloboridae (last visited Apr. 12, 2022)
- Uloboridae Thorell, 1869, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/ULOBORIDAE
SpidersIndex of Spider Images Spiders in Australia Spiders Index Araneidae — Orb Weavers Spider sac Arkys Australian Huntsman Spider Barking Spider Black House Spider Carepalxis sp Celaenia sp Cosmophasis micarioides Crab Spiders Deinopidae — Net-casting Spiders Dolomedes sp Dolophones sp Euryopis Flower Spiders Gnaphosidae (Stealthy Ground Spider) Hackled Orbweavers (Uloboridae) Helpis minitabunda (Bronze Hopper) Herennia sp Jewel Spider Jumping Spider Long Jawed Spider (Tetragnatha sp) Lynx Spider (Oxyopes) Mangrovia albida Maratus Missulena occatoria (Red-headed Mouse Spider) Molycria burwelli Mopsus mormon Nicodamidae (Red and Black Spider) Nyssus coloripes (Orange-legged Swift Spider) Ogre-faced Net-casting Spider Poltys sp (Twig Spider) Scorpion-tailed Spider (Arachnura higginsi) Redback Spider Miturgidae Salticidae Tetragnatha Thomisidae Tiger Spider (Trichonephila plumipes) White-spotted Swift Spider (Nyssus albopunctatus) Wolf Spider
