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European Spider

 

Steatoda nobilis Thorlei 1875 -- Araneae:  Theridiidae

 

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       This is the largest spider of the genus Steatoda in California and may be confused with Steatoda grossa.  It is common in western Europe and its appearance in California was first made in San Diego.  It is now widespread in coastal southern California.  Steatoda nobilis is native to Madeira and the Canary Islands from where it is believed to have spread to Europe, and continued to spread to other parts of the world including the United States, Chile, Colombia and other countries.

 

       This spider is one of the world's most invasive spider species.  It differs in appearance from the false black widow spider, S. grossa, which is brown or dark purple in color with a light band on the front of the abdomen, and it is about the size of a mature black widow spider, Latroductus mactans (Fab).  Steatoda nobilis spiders are observed year round, both indoors and outdoors in a variety of habitats including cacti, roadside cuttings, and abandoned buildings.  They prey on both vertebrates and invertebrates using a technique where silk is wrapped around the prey.

 

       There are no harmful effects associated with the bite of this spider and its venom is not especially toxic.      

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

Dunlop, J. A. & M. Webster.  1999.  Fossil evidence, terrestrialization and arachnid phylogeny.  J. Arachnol. 27:  86-93.

 

Harvey, M. S.  2002.  The neglected cousins: What do we know about the smaller Arachnid orders? Journal of Arachnology 30 (2):  357-372.

 

Harvey, M. S.  2007.  The smaller arachnid orders: diversity, descriptions and distributions from Linnaeus (1758 to 2007).   Pages 363-380. IN: Zhang, Z. Q.  & W. A.Shear  (eds.) Linnaeus Tercentenary: Progress in Invertebrate Taxonomy. Zootaxa 1668:  1–766.

 

Harvey, Mark S.  2002.  The neglected cousins: what do we know about the smaller arachnid orders?.  J. Arachnol. 30 (2):  357-372.

 

Matheson, R.  1950.  Medical Entomology.  Comstock Publ. Co, Inc.  610 p.

 

Patton, W. S. & F. W. Cragg.  1913.  A textbook of medical entomology.  Calcutta & London.

 

Patton, W. S. & A. M. Evans.  1929-1931.  Insects, ticks, mites and venomous animals of medical and veterinary importance. Part I.  Medical; Part 2, Public Health.  Croydon, England.

 

Service, M.  2008.  Medical Entomology For Students.  Cambridge Univ. Press.  289 p

 

Shultz, J. W.  1989.  Morphology of locomotor appendages in Arachnida - evolutionary trends and phylogenetic implications.  J.  Linnaeus. Soc. 97:  1-56.

 

Shultz, J. W.  1990.  Evolutionary morphology and phylogeny of Arachnida.  Cladistics 6:  1-38.

 

Shultz, J. W.  1994.  The limits of stratigraphic evidence in assessing phylogenetic hypotheses of recent arachnids.  J. Arachnol. 22:  169-172.

 

Shultz, J. W.  2007.  A phylogenetic analysis of the arachnid orders based on morphological characters.  Zoo. J. Linn. Soc. Zoological  150 (2):  221–265.

 

Starobogatov, Y. I.  1990.  System and phylogeny of Arachnida (analysis of morphology of paleozoic groups) [Russian].   Paleontologicheskii  Zhurnal 24:  4-17.