
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Apr 1, 2019
- Photographed: Apr 1, 2019
- Spider: Gasteracantha cancriformis (Spiny-backed Orb-weaver)
- Location: Boynton Beach, Florida, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Low foliage (shrubs, herbs, garden, excluding flowers)
- Found in web?: Yes
- Attributes: Ventral, Webs
This spider looks like a crab when it is not on the web. Watched it catch and devour a small fly today. Messy web.
Hi, she looks like a Gasteracantha cancriformis. The common name is Spiny Orbweaver. They have smaller webs than most American orbweavers. This probably means that they eat smaller flying insect, like flies, than other orbweavers. I saw a lot of webs in Florida that looked like they were made by this species. Orbweavers are said to eat their webs every morning and rebuild them. The webs I saw didn’t look very clean or in good repair. It looked more like the spiders were rebuilding without removing the old webs.
Thank you! I just found the information on this site. There are lots of them on our grounds in Boynton Beach, FL. I don’t think (she) eats her web every day as it has fuzz stuck to it.