Ground spiders

Family Zoropsidae

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This family with 67 described species in ten genera and is distributed world-wide.

Genus Zoropsis


Zoropsis spinimana male

Five species of this genus can be found in our region. The spider is very similar to member of the family Lycosidae but lacks the two big eyes on the side of the carapace (head).
Zoropsis spinimana is a cosmopolitan that like to live with humans in the colder regions of Europe. There for its common name: garage spider. Traditionally it is found in the Mediterranean.

The spider also emigrated to California in the USA. The spiders shown here is living in a shed in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

The spider is coloured dark brown, peppered with greyish spots on legs and abdomen. On the dorsal (top) side there is usually two or three dark spots.

Zoropsis spiders have eight eyes, two rows with four eyes. The spider does not make a extensive cribellate web like her family members but hunts actively.

The female produces an egg-sac in April that she surrounds with cribellate silk.

Zoropsis spinimana female Zoropsis spinimana female
 
Zoropsis spinimana male  


Genus Zoropsis Simon, 1878

Zoropsis albertisi Pavesi, 1880; Tunisia
Zoropsis media Simon, 1878; Western Mediterranean
Zoropsis oertzeni Dahl, 1901; Italy, Greece, Balkans
Zoropsis rufipes Lucas, 1838; Canary Is., Madeira
Zoropsis spinimana (Dufour, 1820) Mediterranean to Russia (USA, introduced)


Ed Nieuwenhuys, 25 april 2007. Pictures by Radboud Kloos

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