Tropical tent-web spider
Hundreds of these spiders can share one messy tangle of connected webs spun across a single shrub, each still tending its own private tent below the shared mesh.
| Where | Orchards, scrubland and warm gardens |
|---|---|
| Size | Female 7.5 to 13.3 mm, male 2.7 to 3 mm body length |
| When | January to December |
The Tropical tent-web spider is a stocky orb weaver, the whitish-haired female far larger than the tiny male and carrying two pairs of blunt humps on the back of her abdomen; legs are brown with darker banding.
It spends the day resting out of sight and does most of its hunting after dark, sitting under a horizontal, tent-shaped web that intercepts insects flying into the strands above. Colonies of linked webs can spread across whole trees or hedges.
Traits
Habitat
Farmland
Colour
White, Brown, Black
Active
Night
To people
Not dangerous to people; large colonies build tent-like webs across shrubs and trees, but the spiders keep to their webs and do not bite defensively.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Larinioides cornutus has a smooth, oval abdomen with a pale central folium pattern and no humps, unlike the Tropical tent-web spider's abdomen, which carries two pairs of blunt dorsal humps.
Questions
Is the Tropical tent-web spider dangerous to people?
Not dangerous to people; large colonies build tent-like webs across shrubs and trees, but the spiders keep to their webs and do not bite defensively.
When can you see the Tropical tent-web spider?
The Tropical tent-web spider can be seen from January to December, at night.
Plate retouched from a photo by anna_c56, CC0, iNaturalist Licence
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Spiders›Orb-weaver spiders›Cyrtophora
Last updated 2026-09-27. Every entry is checked against published sources.