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Micrathena Spiders
Micrathena
Micrathena, known as spiny orbweavers, is a genus of orb-weaver spiders first described by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. Micrathena contains more than a hundred species, most of them Neotropical woodland-dwelling species. The name is derived from the Greek "micro", meaning "small", and the goddess Athena.
Species with extremely long spines evolved at least eight times in the genus Micrathena and likely function as anti-predator defenses. Gasteracantha orb-weavers also have hardened abdomens with variously shaped spines, but they are not closely related to Micrathena within the orb-weaver family.
60 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Spined Micrathena
speciesMicrathena gracilis
Arrow-shaped Orbweaver
speciesMicrathena sagittata
White Micrathena
speciesMicrathena mitrata
Micrathena sexspinosa
speciesMicrathena sexspinosa
Amazon Thorn Spider
speciesMicrathena schreibersi
Micrathena plana
speciesMicrathena plana
Micrathena fissispina
speciesMicrathena fissispina
Micrathena funebris
speciesMicrathena funebris
Micrathena lucasi
speciesMicrathena lucasi
Micrathena nigrichelis
speciesMicrathena nigrichelis
Micrathena kirbyi
speciesMicrathena kirbyi
Thorned Heart Orbweaver
speciesMicrathena clypeata
Micrathena brevipes
speciesMicrathena brevipes
Micrathena furcata
speciesMicrathena furcata
Micrathena horrida
speciesMicrathena horrida
Micrathena picta
speciesMicrathena picta
Micrathena pungens
speciesMicrathena pungens
Micrathena swainsoni
speciesMicrathena swainsoni
Micrathena triangularis
speciesMicrathena triangularis
Micrathena vigorsi
speciesMicrathena vigorsi
Micrathena raimondi
speciesMicrathena raimondi
Micrathena saccata
speciesMicrathena saccata
Micrathena acuta
speciesMicrathena acuta
Micrathena miles
speciesMicrathena miles
Micrathena evansi
speciesMicrathena evansi
Micrathena crassispina
speciesMicrathena crassispina
Micrathena sanctispiritus
speciesMicrathena sanctispiritus
Micrathena furva
speciesMicrathena furva
Micrathena duodecimspinosa
speciesMicrathena duodecimspinosa
Micrathena pichincha
speciesMicrathena pichincha
Micrathena patruelis
speciesMicrathena patruelis
Micrathena spinosa
speciesMicrathena spinosa
Micrathena spitzi
speciesMicrathena spitzi
Micrathena crassa
speciesMicrathena crassa
Micrathena guerini
speciesMicrathena guerini
Micrathena excavata
speciesMicrathena excavata
Micrathena flaveola
speciesMicrathena flaveola
Micrathena militaris
speciesMicrathena militaris
Micrathena decorata
speciesMicrathena decorata
Micrathena coca
speciesMicrathena coca
Micrathena cyanospina
speciesMicrathena cyanospina
Micrathena triangularispinosa
speciesMicrathena triangularispinosa
Micrathena stuebeli
speciesMicrathena stuebeli
Micrathena pilaton
speciesMicrathena pilaton
Micrathena molesta
speciesMicrathena molesta
Micrathena bimucronata
speciesMicrathena bimucronata
Micrathena aureola
speciesMicrathena aureola
Micrathena jundiai
speciesMicrathena jundiai
Micrathena beta
speciesMicrathena beta
Micrathena glyptogonoides
speciesMicrathena glyptogonoides
Micrathena schenkeli
speciesMicrathena schenkeli
Micrathena ruschii
speciesMicrathena ruschii
Micrathena zilchi
speciesMicrathena zilchi
Micrathena hamifera
speciesMicrathena hamifera
Micrathena quadriserrata
speciesMicrathena quadriserrata
Micrathena digitata
speciesMicrathena digitata
Micrathena annulata
speciesMicrathena annulata
Micrathena gaujoni
speciesMicrathena gaujoni
Micrathena bicolor
speciesMicrathena bicolor
Micrathena cornuta
speciesMicrathena cornuta
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Micrathena in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 61289.