Neoscona crucifera
(Hentz Orb-weaver)

Featured spider picture The spider species Neoscona crucifera, commonly known as Hentz Orb-weaver, belongs to the genus Neoscona, in the family Araneidae. Neoscona crucifera spiders have been sighted 144 times by contributing members. Based on collected data, the geographic range for Neoscona crucifera includes 1 countries and 31 states in the United States. Neoscona crucifera is most often sighted outdoors, and during the month of October.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Neoscona
Species: Neoscona crucifera

Other Common Names

Hentz Orb-weaver, Spotted Orb-weaver, Barn Spider (another species also shares the same common name)

Author

Hippolyte Lucas, 1838

Primary Colors

Sightings Overview

There have been 144 confirmed sightings of Neoscona crucifera (Hentz Orb-weaver), with the most recent sighting submitted on September 19, 2019 by Spider ID member aragog4life. The detailed statistics below may not utilize the complete dataset of 144 sightings because of certain Neoscona crucifera sightings reporting incomplete data.

Web: 81% of the time, Neoscona crucifera spiders are sighted in a spider web (Sample size: 104)
Sex: 41 female and 6 male.
Environment: Neoscona crucifera has been sighted 103 times outdoors, and 7 times indoors.
Outdoors: Man-made structure (84). On flower (1). Low foliage (5). High foliage (9). Ground layer (2). Open field, pasture, grassland (1). Forest (1).

Location and Range

Neoscona crucifera (Hentz Orb-weaver) has been sighted in the following countries: United States.

Neoscona crucifera has also been sighted in the following states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Seasonality

Neoscona crucifera has been primarily sighted during the month of October.

January:
February: 1
March:
April:
May: 2
June: 8
July: 3
August: 23
September: 39
October: 55
November: 1
December: 2

Additional Remarks

Color and pattern can vary considerably.
Underside of abdomen with central black area framed by white ‘L’-shaped brackets; but keep in mind that a variety of other orbweaver species can have the same or similar ventral markings.
Also see Neoscona arabesca and Eriophora ravilla, two fairly similar-looking species.
The egg sac is spherical or lens-shaped, anywhere from 5-12mm in diameter, made of fluffy yellow or orange silk, and containing up to 1,000 eggs; female attaches it to a rolled up leaf or some other protected place outside her web. Spiderlings emerge in the spring.