Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Mar­bled orb-weavers (Ara­neus mar­moreus) are wide­spread across the Nearc­tic and Palearc­tic re­gions. Their range ex­tends across the en­tirety of Canada and the United States, as far south as Texas and along the Gulf Coast. They are also found across Eu­rope and the north­ern half of Asia, par­tic­u­larly Rus­sia, ex­tend­ing into the Ho­l­arc­tic re­gion. (Esyunin and Laetin, 2009; Esyunin, et al., 2013; Fa­sola and Mo­gavero, 1995; Hoff­man, 1982; Opell and Hen­dricks, 2009)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
• palearctic

• Other Geographic Terms
• holarctic

Habi­tat

Mar­bled orb-weavers live in a large va­ri­ety of habi­tats, in­clud­ing de­cid­u­ous, moun­tain, and conif­er­ous forests, as well as mead­ows, agri­cul­tural fields, or­chards, peat bogs, along rivers, and rural and sub­ur­ban areas. They can usu­ally be found in shrubs and trees, often along the for­est's edge, as well as in man-made struc­tures such as mail­boxes. (Ed­wards and Ed­wards, 1997; En­ders, 1974; Esyunin and Laetin, 2009; Esyunin, et al., 2013; Levi, 1971; Opell and Hen­dricks, 2009; Pekar, 1999; Sva­ton and Pri­davka, 2000)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest

• Wetlands
• bog

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban
• agricultural
• riparian

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mar­bled orb-weavers have an oval-shaped ab­domen; this sets them apart from other orb-weaver spi­ders. This species ex­hibits sig­nif­i­cant sex­ual di­mor­phism; fe­males are much larger, they are 9.0 to 18.0 mm long and 2.3 to 4.5 mm wide, while males are 5.9 to 8.4 mm long and 2.3 to 3.6 mm wide. Mar­bled orb-weavers are poly­mor­phic and show a wide va­ri­ety of col­ors and pat­terns. There are two forms, the 'nom­i­nate mar­moreus' form and the 'vari­a­tion pyra­mi­da­tus' form, which are found pri­mar­ily in Eu­rope. Both forms have light brown or or­ange cara­paces and legs, while the ends of their legs are striped in white, clear, or black. The vari­a­tion mar­moreus form has a white, yel­low, or or­ange ab­domen, pat­terned in black, grey, and white. This ab­dom­i­nal pat­tern gives the species their com­mon name, as they ap­pear "mar­bled". The vari­a­tion pyra­mi­da­tus form has a paler ab­domen, with a large dark brown ir­reg­u­lar-shaped spot near the end of their ab­domen. There are also in­ter­me­di­ates be­tween these two forms. Mar­bled orb-weavers have or­ange eggs that are about 1.15 mm wide. They can be dis­tin­guished from other mem­bers of genus Ara­neus, par­tic­u­larly sham­rock orb-weavers, by dif­fer­ences in the spines on their tib­iae. Spine pat­terns are mostly con­sis­tent within species. Mar­bled orb-weavers also have two types of tib­ial spines. Species of genus Ara­neus can also be iden­ti­fied by their gen­i­tal char­ac­ter­is­tics. The em­bo­lus of male mar­bled orb-weavers is semi-cir­cu­lar, with flat hook-shaped lamel­lae. The em­bo­lus cap on vir­gin males can also be di­ag­nos­tic of this species. The epig­y­num of fe­males is also dis­tinct, with the lamel­lae vis­i­ble as large curved folds from the ven­tral side. (Carmichael, 1973; En­ders, 1974; Levi, 1971; Opell and Bond, 2001; Roberts, 1985)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry
• polymorphic

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Average mass

  0.69 g

  0.02 oz

• Range length

  5 to 18 mm

  0.20 to 0.71 in

De­vel­op­ment

Eggs of mar­bled orb-weavers hatch in early spring after over­win­ter­ing in egg sacs. Ju­ve­niles are pre­sent from spring to July, dur­ing which they molt through sev­eral in­stars, and even­tu­ally molt into re­pro­duc­tive adults. Adults mate in the sum­mer and can be found from June to Sep­tem­ber. After mat­ing and lay­ing their egg sacs, adults die in the fall. (Fa­sola and Mo­gavero, 1995; Levi, 1971)

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion about the spe­cific mat­ing habits of mar­bled orb-weavers. Fe­males of other Ara­neus species emit pheromones to at­tract mates; fe­male mar­bled orb-weavers likely also emit pheromones. To court their mates, male mem­bers of genus Ara­neus spin a "mat­ing-thread" across the fe­male's web. The male moves to­wards the fe­male across this thread, pluck­ing and vi­brat­ing it, and the fe­male ap­proaches him. The male touches the front of the fe­male's body with his legs, stroking her, until she hangs from the mat­ing thread. The courtship habits of mar­bled orb-weavers are likely sim­i­lar. Once courtship is com­plete, males em­brace their fe­male mates and trans­fer sperm by in­sert­ing their pedi­palps. Vir­gin male mar­bled orb-weavers have the em­bo­lus on their palps capped. The capped is re­moved after the first mat­ing. Males mate sev­eral times. Mat­ing takes place in late sum­mer. Other species of orb-weav­ing spi­ders ex­hibit sex­ual can­ni­bal­ism, in­clud­ing Eu­ro­pean gar­den spi­ders, which are closely re­lated and live in the same range as mar­bled orb-weavers. Fe­males often eat their male mates at any point dur­ing the courtship and mat­ing process. It is pos­si­ble that mar­bled orb-weavers also ex­hibit sex­ual can­ni­bal­ism; how­ever, males mate mul­ti­ple times and are noted to sur­vive mat­ing, so can­ni­bal­ism may not be as sig­nif­i­cant in this species. (Elgar and Nash, 1988; Levi, 1971; Olive, 1982; Roggen­buck, et al., 2011)

• Mating System
• polygynous

After mat­ing in late sum­mer, fe­male mar­bled orb-weavers lay their eggs in loose, fluffy egg sacs con­structed from silk. In one re­port, an egg sac was 13 mm across and held 653 eggs. Eggs over­win­ter in these sacs and hatch the fol­low­ing spring. By July, the spi­der­lings molt into re­pro­duc­tive adults. (En­ders, 1974; Fa­sola and Mo­gavero, 1995; Levi, 1971)

• Key Reproductive Features
• semelparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Female marbled orb-weavers mate once in their lives, while males may mate several times.

• Breeding season

  Breeding takes place from mid- to late summer.

Mar­bled orb-weavers die after mat­ing, so adults are not pre­sent to pro­vide any sort of care when the spi­der­lings emerge the fol­low­ing spring. They do pro­vide pro­vi­sion­ing in the eggs, as well as con­struct an egg sac that likely pro­vides some pro­tec­tion from the el­e­ments. (Levi, 1971)

• Parental Investment
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Since spi­der­lings emerge from their egg sacs in the spring, ma­ture into adults, and die in the fall after mat­ing, mar­bled orb-weavers likely only live about 6 months. (Levi, 1971)

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  6 months

Be­hav­ior

To build their orb-webs, mar­bled orb-weavers use the "sec­ond line" tech­nique. A drag line of silk, pro­duced from two silk glands in their ab­domen is cre­ated as the spi­der de­scends from a sub­strate. At some point in the de­scent, a sec­ond line is cre­ated and at­tached to the main drag line. Far­ther down, the sec­ond line bal­loons out due to air cur­rents. Up to sev­eral me­ters of the sec­ond line is pulled out from their spin­nerets as they hang mo­tion­less. Often, spi­ders go back up the main drag line, reel in the sec­ond line and begin con­struc­tion. An orb-web is typ­i­cally com­posed of sticky threads arranged in spi­rals on non-vis­cous sup­port­ing threads. Mar­bled orb-weavers typ­i­cally spin their web at the top of veg­e­ta­tion, in low shrubs, or tall grasses. They spin their web in the morn­ing, and typ­i­cally spend the day rest­ing in a re­treat off to the side of the web, in leaves or moss. Dur­ing the night, spi­ders wait in the mid­dle of the orb web for prey to get snared. Eggs over­win­ter in egg sacs and most adults die be­fore win­ter be­gins, though some lit­er­a­ture re­ports that mar­bled orb-weavers are ac­tive dur­ing the win­ter in colder re­gions, such as Swe­den. (Eber­hard, 1987; Gun­nars­son, 1985; Levi, 1971; Opell and Hen­dricks, 2007; Opell, et al., 2011)

• Key Behaviors
• nocturnal
• motile
• solitary

Home Range

There is cur­rently very lit­tle in­for­ma­tion avail­able about the home range size of mar­bled orb-weavers.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Mar­bled orb-weavers have mechanore­cep­tors in the form of tac­tile hair sen­silla on their tarsi that can de­tect not only move­ment or bend­ing of the hair, but likely also the di­rec­tion of the dis­place­ment. This al­lows spi­ders to per­ceive the en­vi­ron­ment around them through touch; they are also sen­si­tive to air cur­rents. Orb-spi­ders also have chemore­cep­tors on their tarsi that func­tion in ol­fac­tion and chem­i­cal de­tec­tion. Other spi­ders in genus Ara­neus use pheromones to at­tract mates. Fe­male mar­bled orb-weavers also likely re­lease air­borne pheromones to com­mu­ni­cate with and at­tract their mates. Touch is also used dur­ing mat­ing for many other orb-weaver species, as the male courts the fe­male by stroking her body with his legs. (Elgar and Nash, 1988; Foelix and Chuwang, 1973; Olive, 1982)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Mar­bled orb-weavers prey on many in­sect species. They con­struct orb-webs, which have sticky threads arranged spi­rally with non-sticky sup­port­ing threads. The non-vis­cous threads ab­sorb the move­ment of the prey, while the vis­cous threads re­strain the prey, which gives the spi­der time to lo­cate, go to, and at­tack the prey. They mostly eat smaller in­sects, gen­er­ally rang­ing from 0 to 4 mm, par­tic­u­larly from or­ders Or­thoptera, Diptera, and Hy­menoptera. One study found that a sin­gle mar­bled orb-weaver could catch about 14 prey in­sects per day, on av­er­age. (Japyassu and Caires, 2008; Opell and Hen­dricks, 2007; Opell, et al., 2011; Pas­quet, 1984)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Many species of wasps prey on mar­bled orb-weavers. Some wasp species, in­clud­ing spi­der wasps (Ba­to­zonel­lus lac­er­ti­cida) and blue mud daubers (Chaly­bion cal­i­for­nicum), catch and par­a­lyze mar­bled orb-weavers. The par­a­lyzed spi­ders are placed in a bur­row with a wasp egg, and when the egg hatches and the lar­vae feed on the avail­able spi­der prey. Other wasp species, in­clud­ing organ pipe mud daubers (Try­poxy­lon poli­tum) and white-trimmed black wasp (Episy­ron quin­queno­ta­tus), sim­ply catch and feed on mar­bled orb-weavers. Birds are also preda­tors; one noted preda­tory species are pen­du­line tits (Remiz pen­duli­nus) in Eu­rope. (Endo and Endo, 1994; Kristofik, et al., 1993; Kur­czewski and Kur­czewski, 1968; Lan­des, et al., 1987; Rehn­berg, 1987)

• Known Predators

  • spider wasps (Batozonellus lacerticida)
  • blue mud daubers (Chalybion californicum)
  • organ pipe mud daubers (Trypoxylon politum)
  • white-trimmed black wasps (Episyron quinquenotatus)
  • birds (Aves)
  • penduline tits (Remiz pendulinus)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Many species of wasps prey on mar­bled orb-weavers, feed­ing as adults or using the spi­ders as a food sup­ply for their off­spring. Mar­bled orb-weavers are also prey to many species of birds. They are a sig­nif­i­cant in­sec­ti­vore and prey on the many dif­fer­ent in­sect species caught in their web, par­tic­u­larly dipterids and hy­menopter­ans. (Endo and Endo, 1994; Kur­czewski and Kur­czewski, 1968; Lan­des, et al., 1987; Rehn­berg, 1987)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There are no known pos­i­tive ef­fects of mar­bled orb-weavers on hu­mans.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of mar­bled orb-weavers on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Mar­bled orb-weavers have no spe­cial con­ser­va­tion sta­tus.

• IUCN Red List

  Not Evaluated

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

An­gela Miner (au­thor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff, Leila Si­cil­iano Mar­tina (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

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Eber­hard, W. 1987. How spi­ders ini­ti­ate air­borne lines. Jour­nal of Arach­nol­ogy, 15/1: 1-9.

Ed­wards, R., E. Ed­wards. 1997. So­ci­ety Be­hav­ior and Niche Se­lec­tion by Mail­box Spi­ders. Jour­nal of Arach­nol­ogy, 25/1: 20-30.

Elgar, M., D. Nash. 1988. Sex­ual can­ni­bal­ism in the gar­den spi­der Ara­neus di­ade­ma­tus. An­i­mal Be­hav­iour, 36/5: 1511-1517.

En­ders, F. 1974. Ver­ti­cal Strat­i­fi­ca­tion in Orb-Web Spi­ders (Aranei­dae, Araneae) and a Con­sid­er­a­tion of Other Meth­ods of Co­ex­is­tence. Ecol­ogy, 55/2: 317-328.

Endo, T., A. Endo. 1994. Prey se­lec­tion by a spi­der wasp, Ba­to­zonel­lus lac­er­ti­cida (Hy­menoptera: Pom­pil­i­dae) - Ef­fects of sea­sonal-vari­a­tion in prey species, size, and den­sity. Eco­log­i­cal Re­search, 9/2: 225-235.

Esyunin, S., A. Er­makov, Y. Mikhailov. 2013. Re­marks on the Ural spi­der fauna (Arach­nida: Aranei), 14. On the spi­der fauna of the Kyt­lym plexus of moun­tains (the North Urals). Arthro­poda Se­lecta, 22/1: 75-82.

Esyunin, S., A. Laetin. 2009. More on the spi­der fauna (Arach­nida, Aranei) of the lower reaches of Ob River and South Yamal, Rus­sia. Arthro­poda Se­lecta, 18/1-2: 87-94.

Fa­sola, M., F. Mo­gavero. 1995. Struc­ture and habi­tat use in a web‐build­ing spi­der com­mu­nity in north­ern Italy. Bol­letino di zo­olo­gia, 62/2: 159-166.

Foelix, R., I. Chuwang. 1973. Mor­phol­ogy of spi­der sen­silla i. mechanore­cep­tors. Tis­sue & Cell, 5/3: 451-460.

Gun­nars­son, B. 1985. In­ter­spe­cific pre­da­tion as a mor­tal­ity fac­tor among over­win­ter­ing spi­ders. Oe­colo­gia, 65: 498-502.

Hoff­man, R. 1982. A Note on Some Sup­posed Texan Lo­cal­i­ties for Some Ara­neus Species (Araneae, Aranei­dae). Jour­nal of Arach­nol­ogy, 10/1: 93-95.

Japyassu, H., R. Caires. 2008. Hunt­ing Tac­tics in a Cob­web Spi­der (Araneae-Theridi­idae) and the Evo­lu­tion of Be­hav­ioral Plas­tic­ity. Jour­nal of In­sect Be­hav­ior, 21: 258-284.

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Kur­czewski, F., E. Kur­czewski. 1968. Host Records for Some North Amer­i­can Pom­pil­i­dae (Hy­menoptera) with a Dis­cus­sion of Fac­tors in Prey Se­lec­tion. Jour­nal of the Kansas En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety, 41/1: 1-33.

Lan­des, D., M. Obin, A. Cady, J. Hunt. 1987. Sea­sonal and lat­i­tu­di­nal vari­a­tion in spi­der prey of the mud dauber Chaly­bion cal­i­for­nicum (Hy­menoptera, Sphe­ci­dae). Jour­nal of Arach­nol­ogy, 15/2: 249-256.

Levi, H. 1971. The Di­ade­ma­tus group of the orb-weaver genus Ara­neus north of Mex­ico AraneaeAranei­dae. Bul­letin of the Mu­seum of Com­par­a­tive Zo­ol­ogy, 141/4: 131-179.

Olive, C. 1982. Sex pheromones in two orb­weav­ing spi­ders (Araneae, Aranei­dae) : An ex­per­i­men­tal field study. Jour­nal of Arach­nol­ogy, 10: 241-245.

Opell, B., A. Tran, S. Karin­shak. 2011. Ad­he­sive Com­pat­i­bil­ity of Cribel­lar and Vis­cous Prey Cap­ture Threads and its Im­pli­ca­tion for the Evo­lu­tion of Orb-Weav­ing Spi­ders. Jour­nal of Ex­per­i­men­tal Zo­ol­ogy, 315: 376-384.

Opell, B., J. Bond. 2001. Changes in the me­chan­i­cal prop­er­ties of cap­ture threads and the evo­lu­tion of mod­ern orb-weav­ing spi­ders. Evo­lu­tion­ary Ecol­ogy Re­search, 3: 567-581.

Opell, B., M. Hen­dricks. 2007. Ad­he­sive re­cruit­ment by the vis­cous cap­ture threads of ara­ne­oid orb-weav­ing spi­ders. Jour­nal of Ex­per­i­men­tal Bi­ol­ogy, 210: 553-560.

Opell, B., M. Hen­dricks. 2009. The ad­he­sive de­liv­ery sys­tem of vis­cous cap­ture threads spun by orb-weav­ing spi­ders. Jour­nal of Ex­per­i­men­tal bi­ol­ogy, 212: 3026-3034.

Pas­quet, A. 1984. Prey and preda­tory strate­gies of 2 orb-weav­ing spi­ders - Ar­giope bruen­nichi and Ara­neus mar­moreus. En­to­molo­gia Ex­per­i­men­talis et Ap­pli­cata, 36/2: 177-184.

Pekar, S. 1999. Ef­fect of IPM prac­tices and con­ven­tional spray­ing on spi­der pop­u­la­tion dy­nam­ics in an apple or­chard. Agri­cul­ture, Ecosys­tems & En­vi­ron­ment, 73/2: 155-166.

Rehn­berg, B. 1987. Se­lec­tion of spi­der prey by Try­poxy­lon poli­tum (Say) (Hy­menoptera, Sphe­ci­dae). Cana­dian En­to­mol­o­gist, 119/2: 189-194.

Roberts, M. 1985. The Spi­ders of Great Britain and Ire­land Vol. 1. Eng­land: Harley Books.

Roggen­buck, H., S. Pekar, J. Schnei­der. 2011. Sex­ual can­ni­bal­ism in the Eu­ro­pean gar­den spi­der Ara­neus di­ade­ma­tus: the roles of fe­male hunger and mate size di­mor­phism. An­i­mal Be­hav­iour, 81/4: 749-755.

Sva­ton, J., R. Pri­davka. 2000. Spi­ders (Araneae) of the peat­bog na­tional na­ture re­serve Vihrovske Raelinisko (Slo­va­kia). Ekolo­gia, 19/4: 97-104.