Leucauge venusta
(Orchard Orb-weaver)

Featured spider picture The spider species Leucauge venusta, commonly known as Orchard Orb-weaver, belongs to the genus Leucauge, in the family Tetragnathidae. Leucauge venusta spiders have been sighted 69 times by contributing members. Based on collected data, the geographic range for Leucauge venusta includes 1 countries and 24 states in the United States. Leucauge venusta is most often sighted outdoors, and during the month of May.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Tetragnathidae
Genus: Leucauge
Species: Leucauge venusta

Common Name (AAS)

Orchard Orb-weaver

Other Common Names

Orchard Spider, Longjawed Orbweaver, Venusta Orchard Spider

Author

Charles Athanase Walckenaer, 1841

Primary Colors

Sightings Overview

There have been 69 confirmed sightings of Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orb-weaver), with the most recent sighting submitted on September 16, 2024 by Spider ID member atjh19. The detailed statistics below may not utilize the complete dataset of 69 sightings because of certain Leucauge venusta sightings reporting incomplete data.

Web: 93% of the time, Leucauge venusta spiders are sighted in a spider web (Sample size: 69)
Sex: 2 female and 3 male.
Environment: Leucauge venusta has been sighted 81 times outdoors, and 3 times indoors.
Outdoors: Man-made structure (39). On flower (2). Low foliage (23). High foliage (7). Ground layer (2). Freshwater river, lake, stream (2). Open field, pasture, grassland (1). Forest (5).

Location and Range

Leucauge venusta (Orchard Orb-weaver) has been sighted in the following countries: United States.

Leucauge venusta has also been sighted in the following states: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Seasonality

Leucauge venusta has been primarily sighted during the month of May.

January:
February:
March: 7
April: 9
May: 27
June: 18
July: 3
August:
September: 3
October: 2
November:
December:

Additional Remarks

Abdominal coloration is silvery-white with a dark line in the middle, from which four pairs of more-or-less distinct bars branch to the side. There are also shimmery green, yellow-gold, and orange markings on the sides.
On the underside of the abdomen, there may be two bright orange-red or copper colored triangles, especially in immature specimens. It doesn’t happen very often, but the species may occasionally by confused for a “black widow” because of this marking.
In Florida, there is a nearly identical species called Leucauge argyra. The two can be officially separated by the details of their genitalia, but there is also a noticeable difference in the dorsal and ventral abdominal patterning.
Sometimes mistaken for Mecynogea lemniscata (the “Basilica Orbweaver,” family Araneidae) because of the similar body shape and coloration, but the webs of these two species are very different, as are the egg sacs.
Orb web is typically horizontal (or slightly inclined), and has an irregular barrier of threads below it.
Egg sac is constructed of loose, fluffy orange-white silk and can be made inside a rolled up leaf off to the side of the web, or attached to a twig. One sac was recorded as being 8-9 millimeters in diameter and containing several hundred reddish-orange eggs loosely stuck together, each one about 0.4 millimeters in diameter (Levi 1980).