Micrathena sagittata
(Arrow-shaped Micrathena)

Featured spider picture The spider species Micrathena sagittata, commonly known as Arrow-shaped Micrathena, belongs to the genus Micrathena, in the family Araneidae. Micrathena sagittata spiders have been sighted 31 times by contributing members. Based on collected data, the geographic range for Micrathena sagittata includes 1 countries and 15 states in the United States. Micrathena sagittata is most often sighted outdoors, and during the month of August.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Micrathena
Species: Micrathena sagittata

Common Name (AAS)

Arrow-shaped Micrathena

Other Common Names

Arrow Spider, Arrowhead Orb-weaver

Author

Charles Athanase Walckenaer, 1841

Primary Colors

Sightings Overview

There have been 31 confirmed sightings of Micrathena sagittata (Arrow-shaped Micrathena), with the most recent sighting submitted on January 30, 2020 by Spider ID member lexie123. The detailed statistics below may not utilize the complete dataset of 31 sightings because of certain Micrathena sagittata sightings reporting incomplete data.

Web: 67% of the time, Micrathena sagittata spiders are sighted in a spider web (Sample size: 12)
Sex: 20 female and 1 male.
Environment: Micrathena sagittata has been sighted 14 times outdoors, and 0 times indoors.
Outdoors: Man-made structure (7). Low foliage (1). High foliage (5). Freshwater river, lake, stream (1).

Location and Range

Micrathena sagittata (Arrow-shaped Micrathena) has been sighted in the following countries: United States.

Micrathena sagittata has also been sighted in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin.

Seasonality

Micrathena sagittata has been primarily sighted during the month of August.

January:
February:
March:
April:
May: 2
June: 2
July: 4
August: 10
September: 7
October: 3
November:
December:

Additional Remarks

Herbert Levi (1985) wrote that Micrathena bite their prey first and then wrap it in silk, which is the opposite of most types of orbweaving spider. However, Richard Bradley (2013) reported that Micrathena sagittata doesn’t wrap its prey at all.