THE CUCUMBER GREEN SPIDER
The Cucumber green spider is a spider of the family Araneidae. This species occurs in the
Palaearctic. It is widespread in north-western and central Europe, in Turkey, and in Central Asia to China and Korea. It can also be found in parts of
North America, where it was probably introduced. The reason why it caught my attention was that its natural home is not in sub saharan Africa. However, in September 2018, I came across one species in Bamenda-Cameroon which is very very rare.
This species of spider is identified easily by its large and green abdomen and the occurance of red or green jointed legs in most cases.
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| dorsal view |
It is worth nothing that the Cucumber green spider is harmless to humans.
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| cucumber spider |
Taxonomy
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| ventral view |
The species was first described by the Swedish entomologist and arachnologist Carl Alexander Clerck (1709-1765) in 1757 as
Araneus cucurbitinus and was revised in 1942 by Chamberlin & Ivie with the name
Araniella cucurbitina.
Description
Females of
Araniella cucurbitina are larger than males. Moreover the male is generally much slimmer, with more developed limbs (
Sexual dimorphism). In fact females grow up to 4.5–9.5 millimetres (0.18–0.37 in), while males only up to 3.5–4.5 millimetres (0.14–0.18 in). Adult spiders in Spring show a basic green color. The cephalothorax (
prosoma) is light yellowish to red-brown, but the abdomen (
opisthosoma) is definitely green or yellowish green, with four pairs of black lateral spots.The legs are yellowish green or yellow-red-brown. On the lower end of the
abdomen there is a red mark. At the extremities of the
pedipalps, males have the copulatory organs, called
palpal bulbs,
similar to an ampoule, that are used to transfer sperm to the female.
Freshly hatched spiderlings are red, and change to brown before the
autumn.
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| visible red legs |
Araniella opisthographa is an almost identical spider which can only be distinguished from
A. cucurbitina by a microscopic investigation.
Biology
Adults can be found mainly from May to July, but females last as late as September. These spiders do not use a hideout, because they are
camouflaged
by their green colour. They weave their orb-web between leaves and
flowers. These webs are irregularly shaped and only about 100 mm
(3.9 in) in diameter. They have between 15 and 30 rays. The spider
usually stands in the middle of the web while waiting for prey. Egg sacs
are commonly attached to the underside of leaves.
Habitat
These spiders are mainly found on forest clearings, in woods, bushes, scrub and hedgerows and in low vegetation.
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| photo taken by ngala maimo in bamenda-cameroon |
research done by Ngala Maimo Wajiri
Araniella opisthographa is an almost identical spider which can only be distinguished from A. cucurbitina by a microscopic investigation.
