Spined Micrathena

About the Spined Micrathena

The Spined Micrathena is a small orb-weaving spider with one of the strangest shapes of any North American spider. The female's abdomen is hard, shiny, and knobby, armed with five pairs of stout conical spines, and it is patterned in black and white or tan. The abdomen is larger than the rest of the body and angles upward, so the spider looks more like a thorn or a seed than a living animal. Males are much smaller, flatter, and lack the long spines.

This is the spider most likely to leave silk across your face on a woodland trail. Females build small, neat orb webs at head height across paths and gaps in the understory, usually taking the web down at night and rebuilding it early each morning. The spider rests head-down at the center of the web, waiting for gnats, small flies, and other tiny insects.

The spines and hard body are thought to protect the spider from birds and wasps, which find it awkward to handle. Females lay their eggs in late summer, and the spiderlings emerge the following spring. Across the eastern half of the United States, including Central and East Texas, it is common in shady woods from early summer until the first cold weather.

This spider was photographed at the San Gabriel unit of Granger Lake in Williamson County on July 11, 2024.