The Unknown Orb-Weaver of India

By Bruce G. Marcot, Ecology Picture of the Week:

Here is an immature orb-weaver spider.  Orb-weavers are cosmopolitan, especially this genus Araneus, and many species of this genus are widespread and well studied. 

However ... although first described in 1900, this particular species -- known only by its scientific name, Araneus bilunifer -- appears to be largely unstudied, is little-known, and apparently seldom photographed.  It is endemic to India (found nowhere else) and one of 22 species of genus Araneus in India. 

This young specimen was no larger than the nail on my little finger.  It was clinging to the outside wall of my rustic bungalow in a national park in northern India.  In a study of spiders in rice paddies of Kerala, India, only a single specimen of this species was found.

  --Bruce G. Marcot

Image and text © Bruce G. Marcot, Ph.D. Research Wildlife Ecologist,
who produces the Ecology Picture of the Week website.